


RILEY

by JosephWrites



Series: Danganronpa: The Joseph Timeline [3]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Disturbing Themes, Graphic Description, Hate to Love, Male Protagonist, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:35:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 43,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25051786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JosephWrites/pseuds/JosephWrites
Summary: A unique take on the Danganronpa Universe. A man by the name of Riley Tanaka has been beaten down all his life, going day-to-day under the guise of a Rebel from Hope's Peak. His task? To kill his mother, the woman who made his life a living hell. Unfortunately, it seems like that's going to be a much steeper task than it seems.(NOTE: Though this is set in the Danganronpa Universe, it is not a killing game. Returning characters from the previous two novels- Danganronpa Another Branch and Danganronpa Crypt's Despairful Echoes- MAY make appearances along the way. Think of this more as an Ultra Despair Girl spinoff to the original Danganronpa Timeline.)
Series: Danganronpa: The Joseph Timeline [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1814458
Kudos: 6





	1. Prologue: Just a Nightmare of a Life

Darkness.

Tomi’s mind was clouded in pain and misery. Behind him, a hospital lay, and so did the blood that coated up the wall and through the shattered window of it.

Fire, rubble, and bodies. Regret filled his heart as he looked around, blood dripping out from under his mask. He removed it slowly, letting it fall to the floor and onto the grass that had been planted in a foot wide plot that he was currently turning crimson.

He coughed blood again. A large stone was embedded in his stomach, creating a pool around him. He couldn’t move, his breathing was shaking, and he swore he could feel his heartbeat in his throat.

And then, he heard the footsteps. Slow, approaching footsteps, the sound of boot on tarmac, as a completely uninjured figure walked along it. Well, uninjured to a fault- his hoodie has been ripped, revealing the skin under the sleeve, but that was it. He walked along, ten steps more, before stopping in line with the way Tomi was looking.

“... I-Is she...?”

“She’s gone. We failed.”

Even with the hood pulled up, Tomi could feel it. That damn smile, the one that he wore every single day. Unnaturally happy about everything. That was just how Riley was.

And Riley wasn’t doing it on purpose, either.

“... W-We... failed...” Tomi didn’t know that Riley had answered the question _he’d_ wanted to, not Tomi’s. “I-I’m sorry, I...”

Riley finally walked over, slumping next to Tomi and sliding down the wall in a much more casual manner. He didn’t remove his mask- no point, after all. Only difference between Riley and Tomi was the fact that Riley wasn’t on the cusp of death.

“Not gonna make it, are you?” Riley said it almost sadistically.

“... No.” Tomi wanted to be positive. He really did. But that was never in his nature. Pessimism was his most negative trait. “I don’t.”

“... I can understand that.” Riley pulled his knees up to his chest. “People don’t tend to survive impalement.”

“They do if they’re treated...”

“Which you won’t be.”

“Which I won’t be.” Tomi coughed again, the blood hitting the pavement. “You’re about to fight an uphill battle as is. I don’t need to waste your time with my failure.”

“... You haven’t failed, Tomi.” Riley sighed. “I was over-exaggerating. You’re being put in line with Fate. This was always supposed to happen, I’m afraid.”

“I don’t...” Tomi put his head against the wall, looking to the sky with blood dripping from his eye. “...I don’t want to... Can’t I survive instead?”

“No.” Riley’s smile lessened, but never left his face. “I don’t know what we did wrong this time... Everyone followed their roles perfectly. This was the best one we’ve done...”

“D-Did I? I...” Tomi tried put himself down, only choking and hacking up more blood. He was fading now- he could feel the area getting brighter, his ears buzzing. “Guess this is it... I guess I have a few regrets, none of which are exactly...”

“Meeting me being the first one?” Riley chuckled.

“Of course not,” He didn’t get that was sarcasm. “You taught me so much.”

Riley looked at the dark green mask, laying there with a sad amount of sobriety. Riley took it, lifting it up and over his face, making sure it was adjusted correctly.

“... Die a hero.”

“We’re the good guys?”

Riley finally snickered, his smile widening again. Tomi smiled too, more peacefully, but as his breathing declined in speed and his chest heaved for relief, his body began to falter and his mouth dropped back into a smile.

“Promise me something, Riley...” He looked over lazily. “Promise me... that you’ll... actually do it. You’ll do what we’ve been fighting for.”

Riley nodded, almost on instinct. “Of course. I’m not letting them get away.”

“... Good.” He took a heavy breath, filled with an obvious fluidity to it. “Then I won’t need to haunt you, then.”

Riley laughed loudly, and Tomi smiled wider, his last dying breath being wasted on a joke that he hadn’t even known he’d made. His breathing eventually got lighter... and stopped. A single death rattle released from his mouth and into the air.

Riley looked at the body of his fallen ally for a lot longer than he should have. He would’ve run- he would’ve fought- but he didn’t. He just sat there, looking at Tomi’s corpse and studying the mask.

He was gone. And now Riley had nobody else.

“Welp.” He stood, wiping off the grass on the back of his trousers. “No time like the present.”

He walked into the building, around at all the destruction. Flames building in the courtyard, consuming the tree inside, alongside the shattered glass of the windows and the bodies of both Rioters and Doctors alike. Violent protesting had done this- destruction of everything had turned the once formidable hospital into a pigsty of ghosts and lament.

Blood wreathed the halls, the doors, even the ceiling in some places. Riley stopped at a man who seemed to have been shot from below, what was left of him sprayed in the corner upwards like a frozen lava lamp.

Riley knew, somehow, that his team hadn’t done this. After all, nobody on his side carried shotguns. They didn’t carry guns at all- it’d be too easy to track them if they did.

Problem was, there were still guns littering the playing field. He kicked one aside, arriving at the office of the head director and walking in.

When he did enter, however, he finally understood. Inside was the body of a fallen ally, as well as two security guards who had clearly been broken in their own way. He groaned, sitting on the desk.

“So it was you, was it?” He muttered. “You’re the reason she got away.”

He looked at the security guards, seeing that one of them had a walkie talkie. As he reached over, it crackled to life, spooking him slightly.

_“4-1, this is Actual. We’ve received a call of shooting in Tanaka Hospital, can you confirm?”_

Riley bit the inside of his lip awkwardly, taking it and laughing to himself before responding.

“Oh, a lot more than bullets.”

_“... Identify yourself.”_

“I think you know who I am.” Riley spun around, looking at the ceiling. “Who Riley, Ultimate Rebel, leader of... what’s LEFT of the Faceless. How can I help you?”

_“What’s going on at the hospital?”_ Actual asked him. _“What did you do?”_

“What did _you_ do?” Riley responded, treating this like a sleepover conversation. “Every doctor, nurse and janitor in this damn place has a gun on them!”

_“It was a request from Miss Tanaka specifically. Now--”_

“I take it you’re with her now?” Riley turned over, facing the wall.

_“No. Miss Tanaka hasn’t returned yet. Is she with you?”_

“Nope.” Riley grumbled. “So who did you say you were again?”

_“That’s classified.”_ A pause. _“I go by Actual on the job.”_

“What about the fact I can hear sirens? That you, too?”

That wasn’t true, of course- Riley was already trying to get information out of him, as it was easy to when he knew the tactics. He waited for an answer, but the silence went on a beat too long so he continued.

“Mhm, I thought so. So I’m going to run now. Go get myself a hoodie. Maybe then we can talk in person.”

_“Riley, wait.”_

Riley did as he was told, pausing as he waited for the person to continue.

_“Listen, it doesn’t need to be like this.”_ The tone had changed from a business attitude to a more daunting peace. _“Please, just turn yourself in. You’ve done enough.”_

“Not until I kill her.” Riley told him straight, because Actual was being straight with him. “She’s made my life a living hell. I’m not stopping until I can safely say that she’s dead.”

The walkie talkie stayed silent for a second. _“Nothing I can do to change your mind?”_

“Many have tried,” Riley responded. “Many have failed. I can’t help it. I have a LOT of people to avenge for what Akari has done.”

Riley reached over to the other body, beginning to play with his belt to turn it along.

_“... We have the place surrounded.”_

“I know.”

_“Come out with your hands up.”_

“Not today.”

Riley revealed the gun in its holster, picking it out.

_“We’re storming the building if you don’t do as you’re told.”_ The tone was trying desperately not to go violent. _“I repeat, come out with your hands up, or I’m going to give my men permission to come in after you.”_

“Failure after failure...” Riley talked more to himself than to the walkie talkie, looking over the gun and even checking the clip, still holding down the button to make sure he heard. “... You tend to learn that there’s only one way out of a situation like this.”

_“... If you’re planning to end your life--”_

“No, no!” He talked over him. “Of course not. I’m planning to end yours, which will in turn end mine. I’ll be satisfied, it’ll be classed as heroism to the men, and then this timeline will continue without me.”

Riley got up, holding the pistol in front of him. Twelve shots- standard pistol, no sights, no modifications. Safety was off.

“But what does this _mean_ , Actual?” Riley spoke nice and close to the walkie talkie. “Does it mean your men are going to mow me down first chance they get, or does it mean I’m going to get out the door first?”

_“Riley, don’t do this.”_

“Why not? It’s obvious at least one of you have a grudge against the things I’ve been doing.” Riley kicked the door open and off its hinges. “Ready or not, here I come! See you in Hell, Actual.”

Riley tossed the walkie talkie away, walking down the hall. All Actual heard next was sound of a full automatic rifle go off, and then a body hitting the ground.

Two tell tale signs that Riley got given the former.


	2. CHAPTER 1- MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'The violent rioting that is sometimes now being called protesting - it makes the emotions so high that you almost cannot see the insults and injuries that are the people are suffering.'  
> \- Alveda King

# CHAPTER 1.1- MONDAY

Riley’s eyes opened groggily, the sunlight glinting through the blinds. He shielded his face, slowly rising out of the sun and into the darkness he was used to. He was shirtless- he always slept that way- but not trouserless as he got to his feet and walked across old carpet to his bathroom door in the wall to the right of his bed.

Riley’s apartment could be walked across in five seconds. He had all the essentials- the essentials being his bed, his TV and his microwave. He lived in a dump of an apartment building, but hey! At least the plumbing worked, as he proved after using and flushing the toilet and washing his hands in the lukewarm water.

Now that he’d splashed water on his face and could open his eyes further than half of their size, he looked into the mirror to see what he looked like.

The answer was, same as usual- a smile that he couldn’t stop and a buzz cut that let him put his mask on without effort. Speaking of mask, it was on the nightstand which he’d neglected to visit, so after brushing his teeth without toothpaste and spitting blood into the sink, he headed back outside and to it.

The red mask he’d worn for his entire career was sitting there, looking back with the black goggles. He grabbed it, pulling it up and over and onto his head, sliding it down until his nose was underneath it and his eyes were looking through the blackened lenses. It was a bit like a Halloween mask, covering the entire top half of his head and ears, though he could still hear completely fine out of it.

That’s why, when he turned on the TV, he heard the news presenter halfway through his sentence.

“-most all of the suspects have been found wearing a Grey Mask, covering the face as to make the wearer unidentifiable.” The man broadcasting the news was dull and boring, as usual. “Police reports claim that they broke in during the middle of the night, destroying an estimate of 86,000,000 yen’s worth of property. This has forced the Hakamoto Museum of Arts to shut down permanently, as the devastated owner does not believe he can reopen under such a small budget that High Court has given him to reopen.”

It was the final line that Riley proceeded to repeat.

“Police chief Kabutos believes that there is no possible way to identify those in the destruction due to their hidden faces, lack of communication and clothing that seems to be handmade.” He smirked wider. “Glad to see things haven’t changed.”

Riley quickly opened the nightstand, grabbing a black-leather notebook and flipping through the next free page. It was a 400 page notebook, and he’d been writing in it every day for the past...

God, how long had it been?

Riley stopped looking for a free page, flipping straight back to the first page. Of course, this was when he had first started writing in the book, and had first noted today’s date.

September 23rd, 2041. The year the Earth stood still. Riots were plentiful, the police were exhausted, and America was at war with China. Technology had advised, yes, but in the wrong direction- Where the world had predicted Immortality, they’d instead gone for Necromancy, bringing back the successful of the dead, and letting them live a life they may have never gotten.

And somehow, for some reason, Hope’s Peak was still in play.

Riley was still amazed by that fact as he turned to the new free page. After getting involved in so many different scandals- The Great Tragedy, The Hope Program, The Killing Games- you’d think it wouldn’t be thriving as well as it was. Sure, that part of their history was over, but they’d managed to branch out into the NEO program and hadn’t changed since.

Riley finally began writing the date out. Today was Monday.

The 24th.

Of May.

2049.

Riley was twenty four and knew heartbreak like the back of his hand. The second he was born, he was shunned by his family- sent off to an orphanage like a runt of a litter, being forced to grow up with caretakers instead of parents. Riley was poorly educated in all but one skill.

The skill to speak.

Riley was amazing at talking. He was able to talk his way into or out of many things- chores, jobs, rules, anything and everything that a silver tongue could click over. Riley was getting people to do his homework at 10, and then holding fort over a gang at 13.

Of course, in between that time was when he learnt of who his mother truly was. Akari Tanaka, once known as the Ultimate Pharmacist, who had died in a killing game so long ago, brought back by unheard technology. She shot up the ranks of medicine, soon taking charge over High Court’s division of Medicine.

Either Akari’s darker side finally revealed itself at that point, the stress of the job caused her to snap, or she had simply been brought back with twisted ideas, because soon she was going tyrannical in nature. Forced Shock Therapy was the first- an Asylum built in her honour was the next. She had control over anything that concerned the mental health of a human being, and it showed quickly that she herself had none over hers.

Of course, once in charge, nobody could remove her. She was exactly the person they’d been looking for- someone who could ‘sort out’ mental issues.

She just did so in HER way.

And her way, specifically, was not the way Riley was going to let it stand. He and his gang, on their literal first night forming, raided one of Akari’s clinics across the city of Yokohama and firebombing it to show their temper for her rule. She responded, rather quickly and devastatingly, by bombing them straight back, dropping a cruise missile on his location and killing every member of his group apart from him. He didn’t escape unharmed- the explosion destroyed his face, scorching away the top half of it around his nose, making him partially blind and requiring bandages around his entire head for a month.

He also lost the ability to frown. It was a weird side effect to the explosion- it made him completely unable to turn his mouth downwards, forcing him to always wear a smile even when he was at his lowest. And it wasn’t that placant face, barely visible type smiles- it was a big joyful one, the kind you’d get when talking to a friend about a topic you enjoy. He could increase and decrease the size, but not past that point, and could never get rid of it.

He could cry blood too, but that wasn’t the point.

That wasn’t the end of it, however. While in the hospital, the doctors had learnt of the truth, too, so Akari made sure that Riley knew he was a problem child- an action that felt almost like it was a kick in the throat by banning Riley from earning any funds through working. All jobs were hardwired to the bank now- whenever Riley would be paid, it would be funnelled straight to her, instead, which she’d then use to continue her own schemes.

Riley’s life was ruined. So, he took up the next best thing- Rioting. Destruction. Protesting the way others were treated. As a Nihilist, Riley had no direct reason for life- he wanted only to have fun, and was guided by the idea that Life was going to forever be too important to be shackled by the world around them. He made a mask that fit him, specifically to show his life in a single flash of it.

A Mask of Red Death. While Riley was on the scene, riots were trivial- most police would instantly back down on sight of him, while the testy of the bunch (Read: The Corrupt) would open fire or get into a shoving match with him.

Something about seeing Riley at a riot just sparked confidence in the others who were fighting for their own rights. He was like a glowing beacon of Hope, showing all that they could get what they want no matter who they had to go through to take it.

Of course, he didn’t loot. He didn’t steal. He threw stones, but not at people. If someone wanted to fight, he could just turn and point and whoever he pointed at would take over for him. Crowds would wear colourless versions of his mask, wanting to be him, and he let them, knowing what it meant to be someone in his shoes. He forgave them for what they did.

But he couldn’t bring himself to forgive Akari.

So that’s what put his plan in play in the first place- the plan he’d been losing sleep over. Riley Tanaka was going to kill his mother, and he going to do it by any means necessary. He just needed a team of likeminded people to do it.

And he’d find one. He’d just have to ask around.

Riley adjusted his mask. Not because it was uncomfortable, but because it was difficult to see the book’s pages.

It was then that the next news broadcast came on, and Riley ignored it, already knowing what was being said.

“In other news, Tanaka Hospital has recently finished construction,” he droned on. “The hospital has taken years to finish, but finally the grand opening of Akari Tanaka’s crowning achievement will finally be open for business.”

Riley was too busy writing to care.

“The hospital is four floors higher, contains state-of-the-art technology, and has many different therapist offices for the sick to use.” He wasn’t done. “If you’re feeling sickly, or just want to celebrate the life of Akari Tanaka, then her hospital is the one for you.”

Riley leant back and thumped his head on the backboard. “If I wanna be shot in the alleyway, sure...”

Riley got up then, putting the book back in the nightstand, before walking over to the door at the apartment and grabbing the doorknob, undoing the latch and pulling the door open.

Right before the officer knocked the door.

“... Riley Tanaka?”

“Yes, sir.” Riley smirked, sticking out his wrists. “Let’s try to keep this within an hour.”

**...**

Riley was chained to his chair quite forcefully. He could only put his hands to about the top of the table, which he didn’t quite mind. Chains were quick to just prove that he was going to be treated guilty.

Of course, Kabutos wasn’t making that easy, looking at him with dark, hollow eyes. “Still refusing to talk?”

Riley countered instantly and expertly. “I’ve got no reason to. You’re asking an innocent man to spill knowledge on something I have no need to comment on.”

Officer Kabutos was your typical meat-head soldier; all brawns, no brain, ugly as sin. His head held a dirty collection of black hair, falling to his shoulder, and his eyes were greying daggers as they stared right through Riley. His shoulders were bigger than his brain was metaphorically, and his muscles matched that as he had to almost crouch down slightly to sit at the metal desk that separated them.

“You know something.” Kabutos raised an eyebrow. “I know you do.”

“Why would I?” Riley replied with a fake amount of confidence.

Kabutos got up, walking over to the one-way mirror. Riley looked at the reflection of the man, obviously blinking in Morse code to the man behind the window writing out the task.

“Because we have footage of you meeting with him after hours.” Kabutos said into the glass. “You’re hiding something.”

“Wow, those surveillance cameras actually work?” Riley joked.

“If you’re doing this to defend him, then stop. It’ll be easier to just say he was holding you at gunpoint over all this.”

Riley shook his head. God, how many times had he heard them ask that question? It had to be getting up there, right?

“Ah, see, that’s where you’re wrong!” Riley spat onto the desk, revealing it was traced with blood. “Because you’ve already raised your hand on what happens to people who don’t talk. We get beaten. So what kind of evidence could you plant on a man who actually does?”

Kabutos huffed, mumbling into his shoulder to talk to whoever it was that he had on the other end before turning back to Riley. “... You’ve been in an interrogation before, huh?”

“Officer, if I told you the amount of times, you’d arrest me for lying in front of a man in power.” Riley was completely stone in voice, something that did not match the wide smile on his face.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“If I tell you how I got to this point, would you let me go?” Riley leant into the direction he was, as much as he could. “Or would you think I’m insane, try and charge me with insanity? That’s false imprisonment. Not that you seem to care.”

Kabutos grumbled to himself, walking over and sitting back across from Riley with a vicious scowl. “Again, if you’d like to explain what you mean, I will listen. But all of this will be on broadcast.”

“Broadcasting my trauma, huh?” Riley snickered darkly. “Swear that sounds familiar.”

As much as that sounded like a jab at Police Body Cameras, he was referring to the killing games, as they’d become nothing more than a TV drama. How far were they into it now? 286 seasons? Did it matter at all here, was the question, and the answer was no.

Riley had been in a killing game before. It didn’t end well for the other participants, but that was a story for another time.

“You know what I mean.” Kabutos slammed a hand onto the desk, making it echo around the room, which didn’t cause Riley to so much as flinch.

“No, actually, I don’t.” Next, Riley was going to attempt to guilt trip him. Best thing he could do was get someone in on it on the inside. “I thought I could trust the words of a man in blue before they started slaughtering innocent people.”

Of course, Kabutos was either too stupid or too loyal to listen. “Don’t get political. The Department of Yokohama have no bad eggs among them.”

Riley huffed, going overdramatic. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Listen... just speak. I don’t doubt I’ll have questions for you.” Kabutos commanded with his hand, doing the ‘hurry up’ motion, but Riley decided to play around until he heard the familiar question instead.

“Oh, I can assure you, you will.”

Kabutos got frustrated, yelling at him for the next part. “Well... go ahead. Start talking. What is so important that you’re willing to hold up a police investigation over it?”

Riley’s head did a circle, cracking his neck and making him seem annoyed where his body wasn’t feeling it. “Have to make this about you, don’t you?”

Kabutos was about ready to get up and leave when Riley finished that statement.

“Don’t want to listen to the words of a man who knows too much about this place and how it works under a corrupt justice system.”

On that mark, Kabutos froze. He looked down at Riley, smiling up at him with the less-than-innocent appearance that he had on at all times.

“... What are you...?” Kabutos went to question.

“I’ve been here before.” Riley finally broke into the truth. “So many times that I’ve lost count. I stopped counting, actually, past the eighteenth.”

Kabutos raised an eyebrow. “So you’re a criminal?”

Riley lowered his. “No, sir, I’m making a point. But of course, I’m not answering a question like that.” Riley watched as Kabutos looked to the one-way mirror, and when he got no response he spoke again.

“... Then what question are you answering?” Kabutos asked.

“A wonderful question.” Riley laughed to himself. “A question I’m asking all the time as a matter of a fact.”

“Stop dodging it.” Kabutos growled. “What question?”

“The question...” Riley closed his eyes, looking to the air with the wicked grin, before taking a nice deep breath and looking at Kabutos in the eyes.

“But what does that _mean_?”

Kabutos responded by staring back. Riley wasn’t wearing his mask- that had been confiscated, held until after the interview was over- so he could see the dark orange irises of a man who’d seen drugs and abused them in turn.

Kabutos went to comment on it before a buzzer sounded.

_“Kabutos, your coffee’s here.”_

“About time.” Kabutos was smug about it, flicking Riley in the nose since he couldn’t exactly fight back against it. “Sit tight.”

As Kabutos walked out, Riley stayed still, sighing as his smile got small. He looked at the clock, hanging over the mirror, seeing that the time was barely 8:32pm- 28 minutes since they’d started. Mind Games were long and arduous.

It was a shame that Riley wouldn’t be here for much longer. After all, the police captain was about to walk in, give him his mask, tell him to take a few minutes to ‘relax himself’ and ‘get into a state where he felt safe’ and then Riley would be out of there in no time.

“Three... Two... One...” Riley waited for a second. “... Two... Three--”

And there he was. Police Captain Morrison, a Transfer who shot up the ranks of his own station because nobody was better at being an asskisser than he was. The man had flowing grey locks down to his chest, a pair of reader’s glasses and the wrinkles of a war veteran despite never once drawing his gun.

And then the mask was placed in front of Riley, silently and swiftly. Riley looked at it, feigning confusion.

“... Clearly, you’re not comfortable telling us anything,” he admitted, doing the ‘back off’ motion. “So we’re giving your mask. If we let you wear it, will you tell us what you know?”

Riley kept flicking his eyes to the clock as he pretended to think about it.

“... Cut me some slack.” Riley pulled at his chains. “Literally. I can’t put this on if you don’t.”

Morrison knew he would have to. There was no way he’d be getting any closer to Riley and putting his mask on _for_ him, that’d be ridiculous. He walked over to the back of the chair, undoing one of the locks to give Riley enough slack to move his arms up to his head, which he immediately used to do ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.’

He then took the mask, looking it over, pretending to check it for injuries. He knew there weren’t any- after all, why break what could fix a problem- and he certainly knew that he wasn’t going to be talking.

At least, not about business.

Because it was 8:35am, the exact time that Riley was relying on fate to guide him to. He nodded, putting his mask on.

Morrison took the silent nodding as something it wasn’t. “Alright... Are you going to talk?”

“Only to Kabutos,” Riley lied. “I like him. He knows what he’s doing...”

Morrison sighed, showing he was good with that. He headed outside, closing the door behind him.

Riley then said the end of that sentence.

“... Juuuust not who he’s dealing with.”

And then, for lack of a better word, the wall in front of him exploded. Shards of rubble threw themselves around the room, cutting into every wall and making horrific patterns around it. Riley moved his head an inch to the left the oncoming item that caused the destruction in question detached the other chair from where it had been nailed down, giving just a few seconds of time for someone to jump off the object and throw it under the door handle.

Just in time, since the handle then hit the top of it, unable to be opened. Quick to work, like she always was.

“Hey boss!” Her honey-sweet voice echoed the room. “How’s it going?”

Riley shrugged. “Could be better.”

“This is what you wanted, right?” She was wearing her helmet, like a responsible adult would wear while riding a motorcycle, and she was already removing a crowbar from the side of it to beat in the locks of his chair. “I hit the ramp perfect.”

“Just a quick question--”

“How do we get down?” Riley was asking it before her. “Get me out of the chair first.”

It took five seconds. Time was of the essence- Riley saw them getting through that door in twice that time, and it was already ticking along. Riley got on the back of the motorcycle while his saviour got on the front, revving the motorcycle back to life.

“Let’s get the hell out of here!”

Riley patted the motorcycle like he was patting the flank of a horse, which caused it to whirr to life as he pointed for it to move. The helmeted woman launched her way out of the building, out into the air and showing that they were on the second floor.

More than enough height to fly over the top of the police fence, and only barely skidding out onto the road before they flew down it. Riley trusted his cohort- she was a trusted driver for the team, doing runs like this all the time.

“Well, Lily...” He snickered, having to increase his volume to get over the engine. “You’ve saved my bacon once again!”

“No worries, boss!” She shouted over her shoulder. “You told me you’d be here so I appeared!”

Riley nodded firmly. No need for a note; Lily was aware that Riley was going to be arrested that morning from the fact he’d told her in person of what had happened the prior night. That’s of course what they’d arrested him in suspicion of- meeting with a man who had no reason to still be alive.

“So they found out?” Lily continued.

“Apparently!” He yelled back. “Apparently meeting with Tomi is a damn war crime nowadays!”

“He is being suspected for murder,” Lily countered. “Plus he’s the one who led the attack on the museum! Of course the police are going to be swarming over him!”

“But what does this MEAN, Lily?!” He replied to her. “Do you think we’re going to have to move plan B?”

“No!” She laughed. “But we’re definitely going to be ditching the motorcycle!”

Riley looked up, seeing that she was driving towards the docking port, and his smile grew wider as he knew what Lily meant.

“Correct answer!” He held onto her shoulders as it she increased speed, ripping down the boardwalk and towards the ocean, flying off the end of it as the sun’s light pierced the veil around them.

And then they plunged straight into the ocean. Riley kicked off the back of the motorcycle, paddling straight upwards, shivering as he tread water on the surface, looking around for Lily who popped out two seconds after him, helmet discarded to reveal her familiar golden locks and dazzlingly blue eyes.

They shared a laugh like a pair of teenagers- a comparison more apt for the 16-year-old Lily than it was for the 24-year-old Riley- but of course, such a laugh was a swift reminder that they didn’t have much time. They swam up underneath the pier, making sure to duck under whenever possible, before arriving at the very end of the pier and onto the sand banking below that point. Underneath it was an abandoned sewer pipe- typical of boardwalks nowadays, unfortunately- and opening it as it was already unlocked.

Lily squeezed saltwater out of her hair. “Ladies first?”

“Always.” Riley motioned for her to head in first, putting on the type of voice you’d hear on a tour of a mansion. “The sewer entrance is clean and rats haven’t been seen in three days... The lights don’t work, however, so be careful where you step.”

Lily did a rich salute with a sly face and a snicker, getting up and onto the pipe and wiggling herself inside it. She knew everything he just said was true- she had picked the location. Riley was just making a joke out of it, as always. He made sure that nobody had seen them, which they hadn’t, and did the same; pulling himself up and into the pipe, where he closed it behind him, locking it with the sewer keys hanging on the wall.

Lily looked around the dark corridor that they were all too familiar with. “So what are we doing down here?”

“What do you think? We’re making sure it’s all still here.” He walked down it, not looking back, taking off his mask as it was too dark to be wearing it. “Last thing I want is to lose it now.”

“Boss, it’s fiiiine!” She was far more cheerful than he was, radiating positivity. Even in a dark, mangy area like an abandoned sewer line, she was pleasantly walking along behind him, being the light to his dark. The fact she wore a biker’s jumpsuit in red and black was actually rather different for her, from her usual attire of no-sleeves and dress skirts.

Riley had to be sure, of course- he pushed open the door to the old maintenance room, seeing that everything they’d gathered was indeed still there. All of it- all the bats and crowbars and sewn together uniforms. The nightmares that Riley had suffered floated back, but he suppressed that part of him instantly- no worries were required, so he would not be worrying.

“See? All there.” Lily patted his shoulder, her 5’2’’ betraying his 5’7’’. “Is that everything, Boss?”

Riley shrugged. “I guess so. Just had to make sure- we were always gonna go this route as is, weren’t we? Fate guided our path.”

As he turned and walked out of the room, closing it behind Lily, he heard her question him with a small appointed hum. “Boss, no offence--”

“None taken.”

“I... Haven’t started.” Lily sighed. “Do you really truly believe that Fate is guiding us?”

“Hey, I’m still alive. That’s a good idea there’s something going for us.” He cracked his back as he spun the locks in place. “There’s no Hope, at the end of the day, why shouldn’t we choose something else?”

“I-I guess...” She pouted, looking at him as he finished up. “But don’t you feel like it’s strange that you’ve been following a plan to the letter? It’s kind of impossible not to detour if it seems wrong, right?”

“Lily, sweetie,” Riley put his hands on her shoulders, menacingly smiling. “Nothing is right. We’re rebels treated like terrorists. You’re the Ultimate Kintsugi Artist. You don’t need to fight alongside me, and yet you’re fighting for a good cause.”

Lily blushed. “The cause is always good.”

“The cause kept innocents being slaughtered in their millions.” Riley pulled away from Lily, looking at the emergency lights and how they hadn’t come in on literal years. “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accept evil without protesting against it is really co-operating with it...”

Lily realised Riley was trying to do a tangent, so she stopped him quickly. “Alright, alright, I get it. Boss, you can get really preachy sometimes...”

He laughed, shaking his head. “I’m not looking to start a religion.”

“You know what I mean!” Lily drilled his arm with a punch, playfully. “So, what are we going to do? The Police are going to be looking for us.”

“For an hour at most,” Riley checked his nails. “I’ve already got one of the group to pay the D-O-P bill that they’re going to give us, and since they couldn’t pin anything on me, we’re still walking free.”

“How often does a woman drive a motorbike into a police station’s second floor for you to know how much it costs?” She asked innocently.

“Not enough,” He admitted fruitily. “Now, all I suggest is that you go find Tomi and tell him that he’s gonna have to sit tight for a day longer at most. The Termites are gonna be scowering our meeting point to find anything and everything that can use to put us down.”

Lily nodded. “I didn’t bring my mask...”

“All the more reason it should be you. Damn security definitely saw mine.”

Lily rubbed the back of her head. “And what are you gonna do, Boss? They’ll be accosting you in the streets if they see you...”

“Well, I’m going to continue holding up MY end of the bargain.” Riley looked up the line, out at the barely shining sunshine outside the pipe. “I’m going to be making sure we recruit a few more patrons to our cause. Just need to head over to Main Street to do it.”

“Main Street?!” Lily quipped back. “You’re a criminal there, Boss!”

“I’m a criminal everywhere, Lily.” He turned and patted her shoulder, smiling wider. “Only difference between there and here is that over there, I won rights, and Akari doesn’t like that.”

Lily giggled, barely getting that was a joke. “Boss, you’re crazy. That’s what I like about you- you’re willing to make any plan work!”

“Willing to do it, difficult to achieve...” Riley began walking the opposite direction of the way they’d come in, going as far as the sharp turn before looking back at Lily. “You take it easy! We’ve got a day before we need to get serious!”

“I thought you said we’d already started!” Lily called back to him.

“Do with that as you will!” Riley brushed off the way she’d said it before waving back and walking into the darkness.

He had somewhere else to be, first.


	3. CHAPTER 1- MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, Rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.' - Martin Luther King, JR.

# CHAPTER 1.2- SURVIVOR

Riley pushed the grating of the sewer open, knowing that there’d be no one nearby. He climbed up the ladder into the sunshine, pulling his hoodie over his wounds to hide them from the sunlight.

Not for any reason, of course. He was more than body confident. He just didn’t like the sun getting in his eyes while he was trying to work.

With his foot, he pushed the sewer grating back in place. Another day, another dollar- out in a field without the city of Yokohama in view for another mile. A great place to think, if he had needed to use it for thinking at all.

Here, he had a tent. It was a back-up storage place, a perfect disguise because no soul on Earth was going to stop their car on the side of the road to check in on a tent, especially since there was no camping equipment to be seen as it was. Just the tent and the stone circle around the grating, acting like an unlit campfire.

Of course, when you set up something smart, you need to be ready for stupidity to win. That’s why Riley instantly put on his mask when he heard rustling from inside of his tent, followed by air through closed teeth. He was planning to wait for them to realise he was there, but when they swore and punched one of the shelves inside he sighed and bit the bullet.

“You realise you need to disinfect the wound first, right?” Riley turned his head fully to the tent, speaking to the air. The person inside his tent froze, waiting for him to speak again. “Well, of course you didn’t. I’m sure they never taught you that in acting class.”

... With a small shuffle, the front of the tent zipped open, and the figure inside moved aside the flap.

“The fuck’s that supposed to mean?” She barked at him.

“Nothing Ichika.” Riley smirked more forcefully. “I’ve heard it said somewhere before.”

Ichika’s eyes widened, looking around. “You know who I am?”

“I do,” he replied sharply. “But I know you’re one who would rather introduce themselves, so go ahead.”

She huffed, looking back at him. “Get in here.”

Riley didn’t talk back, walking inside the storage tent holding medical supplies, ready-made meals and a bedroll that had seen slight use. He beamed, chuckling as she zipped the tent front closed.

“My name’s Ichika. Ichika Yukiwara...” She did a one-handed gesture of confusion, the other holding a bleeding patch tightly. “Ultimate Classics Actor. How the fuck did you know that?”

“How do you think?” Riley instantly grabbed the three things he needed- Disinfectant, bandages, gauze- and watched her sit down on the camping stool. “The killing game’s website has been going insane since your victory. You’re the first girl in 50 killing games to win one in the first trial.”

Sure enough, Ichika was a celebrity for a completely different reason that she wanted to be. Coffee-coloured skin and purple gradient hair made her stand out as is- her choice of clothing being a 20’s flapper outfit assisted with that. Ichika’s entire life revolved around being noticed, and now she wanted nothing more than to be left alone.

After all, Ichika was a part of the newest killing game. A willing participant, would you believe. There was a ton more of those floating around lately- someone who’d rather be entered into a killing game to see if they could score themselves victory, thinking that the memory wipe that came with it would somehow leave that intact.

Spoiler alert- it doesn’t.

Riley knew Ichika. He knew her way more than he thought he’d ever known her for. The Killing Game’s website has the profiles of everyone who’s ever entered into a killing game, sorted by the season they appeared, and Riley liked to search through those profiles. It was hers that truly caught his eye.

After all, under the criteria of ‘Greatest Desire’, it was incredibly obvious that hers was a lie. After all... Not many people enough repairing theatres, especially theatres of their ‘alive’ dead parents.

“Don’t even talk to me if you want an autograph,” Ichika told him bluntly. “The hell are you doing here?”

“This is MY tent,” Riley replied, giving her an unseen look. “You not heard of the great Riley Tanaka?”

“Don’t flatter yourself, Who-gives-a-shit.” She jabbed him in the chest as he approached. “I’m not gonna fall for this false smile junk. You dropped the act too quickly.”

Riley pushed her hand away, pouring the disinfectant on her arm, making her cry out into the air and hold onto it painfully. She didn’t stay still enough for Riley to bandage her up, so he had to hold onto her and force the gauze around her arm, all the while listening to her cry and curse and swear into the night.

When it was done, and the bandages were being applied, Riley made sure to let her have it.

“Says the woman who couldn’t keep her bloodlust down for longer than a week.”

“Like hell was I staying with that crowd,” She muttered. “Fucking drug addict, heavy metal singer, Russian spy bullshit...”

“And then you, the Remnant of Despair,” He chuckled. “I thought you guys were supposed to be all about feeling bad for yourselves?”

“Yeah, fuck off.” She decided then was a good time to smoke, fishing inside her bra for a pack of cigarettes which she pulled out harrowingly quickly. “I don’t give a shit about any of that. Sure, despair feels nice, but it’s lost its touch.”

“Shadow Therapy?” He raised his brow.

“Nope. Just self-loathing.” She replied like she was reading off a script. Riley was aware he was just killing time until she asked the question he had business answering. “So why the hell did you help me, anyway?”

“Simple.” There was the question. “I want someone dead. I want you to help me kill them.”

Ichika took a long, hard drag of her cigarette, clearly not pondering the question at all, considering she knew who ‘someone’ was. “Akari?”

“Read my mind.”

“You want to kill one of the most protected government officials in all of Japan for petty revenge?” Ichika was quick to strike. “You’d be minced. They make a law that’d make murder allowed, but only for you.”

“They’ve already blacklisted me from ever earning cash the legal way, so.”

Ichika hummed. “Good point.”

“... So?” He smirked a little wider, an act that made her sigh and cross her arms. “I’ll give you full permission into our group, plus a place to stay that won’t be full of perverted assholes hell-bent on making the killing game a fetish.”

Ichika took another puff of her cigarette. “... Alright. Sounds good. I’m in.”

“On what condition?”

Clearly, Ichika had wanted to interrupt him with that part, so she scowled. “On the condition that you all make me a mask. I’m not doing it myself.”

“What colour?”

“Purple. Make it match my hair.”

Riley stuck his hand out, and Ichika shook it, cementing the deal. Upon doing it, however, Ichika then smiled a little slyly, testing Riley’s trust in her.

“... I also want to see under your mask.” She said it with a vile toxic croak, almost getting a sexual thrill off of how she’d said it. “Let me see those scars up close.”

Riley said nothing, pulling back his hood and removing his mask for her to see. Immediately, Ichika revelled in what she saw, her eyes widening and biting her bottom lip.

“... Alright, Remnant.” Riley’s smile hid the fact he was already bored. “If we’re doing this, at least take me out to dinner first.”

Ichika lost the expression. “Cocktease. I’m just having a little fun...”

“Fun with my destroyed, broken face.”

Ichika grabbed him by the hoodie strings, forcing him closer. “Maybe that’s the way I want it...”

“I’m not having sex with you, Ichika.” Riley just told her straight, knowing that’s where she was going to try and steer it. Her disappointment was immediate, letting him go and shoving him backwards, but she’d already agreed to the deal he’d put in play. No backing down now.

“So now what?” She looked him over as he slipped his mask back on. “Where do I need to go?”

“You? Need to follow me.” Riley undid the tent zipper again. “Back into the sewers we go...”

“Wait, the sewers?” Ichika followed, albeit angrily. “Bitch, I’m wearing a dress!”

“And I’m wearing a hoodie and sweatpants. Your point?”

“Listen, Glass-Eyes!” She spun him towards her. “I’m not crawling through filth! You can forget it!”

“What filth?” He replied cheekily. “This sewer system’s been out of commission ever since the High Court Department of Health traded them out for that new plumbing road. You know the one.”

She growled. “Of course, not like they weren’t advertising it on every fucking street corner...”

Riley pulled the grating off of the stones, aware of the time they were still wasting. “The Faceless use these underground tunnels for easy transport-slash-escape whenever we see danger coming at us.”

Ichika looked up and down, from Riley to the hole in the ground, tapping her foot impatiently, ultimately resulting in her groaning in frustration and walking over, looking inside.

“... Seriously can’t believe this shit...” She noted, heading down the ladder with careful ease. Riley made sure she was out of sight off of the ladder before heading down after her, pulling the grating over the top to keep up the facade.

Once he was on stable footing again, he looked over at Ichika, who was angrily pouting and holding herself while looking at a wall of writing.

“God don’t decide when we die, we do.” She huffed, reading exactly what was written. “This sounds like a ten-year-old wrote it...”

“Yeah, well that Ten-Year-Old was eighteen and now runs the Faceless,” Riley interrupted her, making her eep in surprise. “You’d be amazed how many of these quotes get brought up in a rally. You remember that speech from the president that went haywire because they kept chanting so loudly that he couldn’t speak, even with the mic turned up?”

Ichika nodded. Riley pointed to himself with his thumb, making her roll her eyes and begin walking in the opposite direction, swaying her hips like she was trying to keep attention south. As she walked, she lit another cigarette, and Riley noticed how her lighter appeared to have a hooded flame to obscure vision to it.

“God, do you fear light?” She huffed, taking a deep take in of the death stick. “A little mood lighting would go a long way.”

“We keep it dark to avoid suspicion from the law.” Riley’s smile widened gently. “Of course, you want to talk about fears, we could talk about your fear of fire.”

Ichika grimaced. “Is that something else you picked up?”

“You have a hooded lighter. You’re either a drug dealer or have Pyrophobia.”

Ichika took another smoke of her cigarette. “How fucking dare you.”

Riley walked behind her casually, just watching her hips sway. Not that he was enjoying it- there’s no point enjoying something like that from a woman who you weren’t dating- but because Riley found her hair too distracting and wanted to watch something she actually WAS trying to get noticed on.

Eventually, Riley stopped her at a door that she was about to swagger right past. “Alright, here it is.”

“This is a maintenance hatch,” She spat back.

“It’s a maintenance hatch that leads too...” He pushed the door open, showing her the only thing in the room to quote on. “A ladder.”

“And the ladder leads to...?”

“Where do you think?” Riley walked over, testing the rung. “We’re going up to the Faceless Hideout.”

Ichika closed the door behind him, watching him go up before following him begrudgingly. Up they went, climbing for twice as long as they climbed down from the tent, heading towards the sound of conversation from above.

Riley rasped his knuckle on the windowed trapdoor, in a pattern that they would recognise. In response, a man opened the trapdoor, saluting as Riley climbed up into the entrance room where three people waited for him.

“Riley!” Friendly voices all around. “How’s it going?”

“Good. Gather everyone you can for induction,” Riley told them. “We’ve got our fourth leader.”

Ichika climbed out behind Riley then, immediately grabbing the attention of everyone involved. You see, Japanese population consists of 1% African-American race or, to give it a less formal term, Black People. That’s why everyone was staring at her in awe- that, with the including facts she had gradient purple hair and a woman of excellent figure, made it obvious they were dealing with someone of a much different calibre.

“Guys!” Riley yelled, snapping them out of their confused excitement. “We need a meeting! Now!”

They quickly left, getting second glances at Ichika from behind as they went. Riley knew this because one of them Wolf-Whistled as he surged out the door.

Ichika huffed. “Excitable little teenagers you’ve got around, haven’t you?”

“You would call it Fate that a good-looking woman comes rolling in, then.” Riley gave her a compliment to add to the pile, watching her not even react to it. “And even greater Fate that you came to us.”

“You’re an odd guy, Riley.” Ichika smirked with a strange lust. “I think I like that...”

“Yeah, save it,” Riley shut her down instantly. “Let’s make it to the end of the week. Then I’ll buy you dinner.”

Riley knew that promise was a lie. He didn’t feel anything for this woman- He didn’t feel love for anyone. Sure, he had friendships, allies, things of that notion, but ever since Akari came into play Riley wanted nothing to do with it.

Ichika, of course, was like a fish out of water in Riley’s world. She followed him, holding herself in a hug, heading down a hallway that she didn’t recognise. “Where are we?”

“You know that abandoned asylum in Sector Four?” Riley asked her.

“T-The one that Akari shut down?!” Ichika replied knowledgably. “You’ve GOT to be kidding me... how doesn’t she know you’re here?”

“Because it’s A) abandoned and B) torn out of all its security functions.” Riley walked and talked, hearing Ichika barely keeping up. “We gutted this area for any technology that’d trace us back to High Court.”

“Who led THAT trade?” Ichika was hurrying behind him quick.

“Tomi. He’s our tech-slash-drug trade manager.”

“I see...”

Riley finally arrived at a balcony, leaning on it to look over, down onto what used to be a canteen. Down there, he saw the busybodies of his peers moving below like ants, each with their own properties and needs. He cleared his throat, and upon doing so he watched everyone below stop and turn to look up at him.

They all responded the same way- by falling completely silent, looking both at Riley and Ichika who moved up next to him.

“Ladies and Gentlemen!” Riley’s voice echoed around the room. “Welcome our newest leader of the Faceless- Ichika!”

They all cheered in unison, making Ichika smile ever so slightly. The smile, of course, faltered when a few whistles and catcalls echoed through the room, too, and Riley watched as she groaned and took a walk off north.

When Riley went to follow, he heard the sound of another voice. “R-Riley.”

To the sound of the voice, Riley looked over, seeing that Tomi had found him. The green mask was not over his eyes, revealing their blue sheen, and his hood was pulled up to make him as unrecognisable as possible.

A good thing for Tomi, considering he was supposed to be on the run. Riley knew the other reason, too, as he’d been working with Tomi for about three years- Tomi suffered from asperger syndrome, making him have issues with communication and behaviour, but he worked alongside Riley and Lily to try and fight that.

Tomi was abused as a child. He was told he’d never amount to anything.

Under Riley’s rule, Tomi was given the life he was told he’d never have, and he fought every day to keep it that way. That’s why Riley recognised his talent and made him a commander of the Faceless- with Tomi’s permission, of course- and the trio had been working ever since.

Tomi’s job was technical stuff- if Riley needed a Riot in a part of a city, Tomi was grabbing a team and beginning one there. While Lily was more about getting away with it, Tomi was definitely more smash-and-grab. Their raid on the museum should prove why Riley didn’t really want Tomi out in the streets.

“Hey, buddy.” Riley’s voice instantly went softer. “How are you doing?”

“A-Are the police still after me?” He asked, not responding to that question.

“Unfortunately.” Riley leant on the balcony railing. “Sorry, but you’re going to have to work down here for the foreseeable future.”

“... O-Okay.” Though he didn’t sound it, Tomi was clearly instantly grateful. “So that means I can’t go outside?”

“It’s more than that. You can’t show your face, mask or not,” Riley tutted. “You stirred the hive with that last riot. Good job.”

“... Thank you?” Tomi asked questioningly.

“That wasn’t sarcasm,” Riley comforted him by saying.

“Are you sure?” Tomi looked up slightly, hands tight over each other. “I mean, you s-say that, but, a lot of people got hurt and... and it’s my fault. I should’ve been more careful, I didn’t know the silent alarm was still active--”

“Tomi.” Riley stepped forward, cautious not to touch him. He didn’t like that. “You did everything you could. You disabled all the alarms you knew about- and the point of silent alarms is that you don’t know they’re there.”

“I’ve... never understood how an alarm can be silent...” Tomi thought out loud.

“It’s a play on words,” Riley went on to explain for what felt like the hundredth time. “You don’t hear it, because the alarm doesn’t play in the museum- it plays in the police station, to warn them to send a squad over.”

“I see...” Tomi crossed his arms across his chest, packing them into himself tightly and fearfully. “A-Are there silent alarms here?”

“Nope! This place is safe.” Riley had DEFINITELY told him this before. “That’s why we chose this place as a main ground base. It’s got none of the new technology in it that would get us targeted.”

“Y-Yes. Okay, I know that.” Tomi wasn’t saying it like he was talking down to Riley, merely saying it to show that he was listening. “No outside technology. No phones, no wires, nothing new.”

“Thatta boy! I knew you’d remember.” Riley gave him praise. It was all he could give. “Now, there’s going to be an induction in a few hours. Are you going to be on stage?”

“Oh, um... I-I don’t...” He touched his fingertips together. “A-Am I allowed to be? D-Do you w-want me to?”

“Hey, I’m only asking because I don’t want you to be stressing over it.” Riley shrugged. “I know you’re more confident wearing the mask.”

Tomi nodded. “I-I am.”

“You can wear it, if you want.” Riley motioned to it, hanging slightly out of his hoodie pocket. “Nobody’s stopping you. You just can’t go outside wearing it, okay?”

“I-I can’t go outside at all, you s-said.”

“I did say that.” Riley tapped the side of his own mask. “See? You’re clever. I was testing you.”

Tomi smiled, happy with the way Riley was talking to him. “... C-Can I wear the mask now?”

“Go ahead!” Riley happily motioned for him to do so.

Tomi scrambled to put the mask on. He wasn’t scared of Riley- Riley was the only person who Riley had ever seen him actually talk to while not wearing his dark forest green version of the Faceless mask- but you could tell the second he put it on and the relief hit his stance of pure terror that he was better off with it on. Riley was okay with that. He just needed some space, was all- You couldn’t overwork him.

Of course, that ten anointed another question. “Has Yonaka been bothering you still, Tomi?”

Tomi looked up in surprise, but did nod his head, looking over his shoulder.

“Great.” Riley growled. “Where is he now?”

“H-He’s doing a supply run.” Tomi stepped forward, going quieter. “He said that I was a useless scoundrel who c-couldn’t do anything right... A-And that if I told you, h-he run to the police and t-tell them--”

“Yeah? And what did you say back?”

Tomi paused. “... Thank you?”

Riley rolled his neck. “Hey, don’t worry. I’ll talk with him for you. I promise, it’ll be all good by the time we get to the meeting.”

Tomi nodded, his smile not returning. “T-Thank you, Riley...”

“Alright, head off for me, kid.” Riley crossed his arms. “I need to put in the request for Ichika’s mask...”

Tomi said nothing else, heading the opposite direction with a hurried movement. As he went, Riley walked over to the wall phone and messaged the communications room.

_“We hear you. What’s up?”_

“Yonaka out on a supply run?”

_“Yes Boss. What can we do for you?”_

“Tell the Alpha to break his legs. If he screams, break his neck.”

_“Yes Boss.”_

Riley hung the phone on the wall with a slightly maniacal laugh. “You put the team in danger, you get danger put on you.”

Riley had to tell himself that so that he knew it wasn’t just for Tomi he’d do it for. Somehow, however, deep down, he wondered if that was true.

“... Never mind,” he shook his head. “Let’s get this mask made.”

**...**

Three hours later, almost to the second, Riley was standing on the elevated platform that they’d made out of boxes and rugs to act as a stage. Riley took the front of it, while Lily was behind him, wearing her blue mask running with golden veins, a choice she made instead of wasting resources making a new mask when hers got shattered in a riot. Next to her stood Ichika, smoking a cigarette, and at the back wall on the other side was Tomi, quietly scribbling in a little notebook to keep himself busy.

Riley laughed as the murmuring died down and everyone’s attention was on him. “People of the Faceless! Riley Tanaka here.” He smirked, the very mention of his name starting the chants.

Again, he waited for them to die down. “Now, now. We’re not celebrating me, today. I haven’t done anything. In fact, I am the outlier in the group- the one who needed help.”

A few more mutterings. Riley crossed his arms, pretending to be hurt.

“I know, right?! Well, if it wasn’t for Lily here, I’d be in a jail cell, for sure! She risked life and limb to save me. So I think that deserves a little applause, don’t you think?!”

Riley motioned to her, and the cheering and applauding was thunderous as Lily blushed and rubbed her cheeks, pretending she wasn’t eating it up.

“Next on the list... the raid on the museum.” Riley heard a small bit of chatter. “Yeah, yeah, get it all out. Truth of it is, the party who went in? Did their part perfectly. No amount of evidence could point otherwise. And Tomi...”

He looked over at Tomi, who was trembling as he looked back.

“Tomi did his part wonderfully.” Riley smiled wider at him, comforting him. “There was a silent alarm, sure! But that’s the risk we pose as more and more of these buildings in this city get upgraded with the high-tech stuff. So whether you love him or hate him, his job was to shut down alarms, and he did! So... what do you think? Doesn’t he deserve some love too?”

Again, everyone applauded, politely and carefully as not to spook Tomi too much. He looked at everyone, a shaky smile appearing on his face.

“And finally... Ladies and Gentlemen, we’ve found our fourth leader!” Riley motioned wide for Ichika. “Meet Ichika Yukiwara, the new leader of the Faceless! Come on up here, Ichika!”

Ichika walked forward with a big, smug grin on her face, posing and twirling her hair in her fingers, driving the audience wild. She knew how to work a crowd, that was for sure- Riley knew, however, that he’d need to convince them that she wasn’t some eye-candy.”

“Alright, so, anyone know her?!” He yelled at the crowd as the cheering died down. “No? You just love her looks? Fair, but not what I wanted. Ichika here is a survivor of a killing game. She had a hill to climb, and dear God she climbed it. That’s why, as of today, Ichika Yukiwara... I humbly place you in charge of the Faceless, like me, and like Lily, and like Tomi.”

Riley then removed her mask from his inside pocket, revealing it was just like everyone else’s but in purple- specifically, the colour of purple her hair started at.

“Do you, Ichika- Place your hand on the mask for me-” She did. “-Do you swear to lead the Faceless with dignity and respect?”

Ichika kept her smug grin and the hand not on the mask on her hip. “I do.”

“And do you promise to hold onto your will and willpower when the going gets tough?” Riley had done this with everyone. It was just a habit. “Do you hold onto our morals, and will grip them, even when they feel like chains?”

Ichika thought about it for a moment. “... Of course.”

Riley smiled wider. “And do you promise to wear your mask with pride, and treat it like family, just like the people around you?”

“Obviously!” Ichika exclaimed.

“Then I see no reason why I shouldn’t do this.” Riley stepped back and twirled the mask towards her. “Please take a knee, so I can put the mask on you.”

Ichika rolled her eyes, still smiling, before doing just as she was told. Riley placed the mask over her head, tightening the bow at the back so it was a perfect fit, as the crowd erupted in applause once more. Ichika held that position until the mask was fitted, and then stood on Riley’s command, just as Lily and Tomi took either side of the pair.

“Our numbers grow!” Riley told the group. “And now, we’re stronger than ever! I think it’s time to begin Plan B...”

Ichika looked at him, her new mask obscuring her eyes. “Plan B...?”

Riley raised his fist into the air. “Fight for Freedom!”

“FIGHT FOR FREEDOM!”

“Fight for Honour!” Lily yelled excitedly.

“FIGHT FOR HONOUR!”

“Fight for Japan!” Tomi raised his voice a single decibel.

“FIGHT FOR JAPAN!”

Ichika realised she needed to come up with something on the spot, and quickly barked her own version. “Fight for... everyone?”

“FIGHT FOR EVERYONE!”

Riley laughed, patting Ichika’s back. “Fight for the Faceless!”

“FIGHT FOR THE FACELESS!”

The crowd cheered and hollered, all chanting the mantra they seemed to have gathered, as Riley head his position, nodding along.

Time to try again.


	4. CHAPTER 1- MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'The relationship between violence and nonviolence in this country is interesting. The fact of the matter is, you know, people do respond to riots. The 1968 Housing Act was in large response to riots that broke out after Dr. Martin Luther King was killed. They cited these as an actual inspiration.'
> 
> \- Ta-Nehisi Coates

## CHAPTER 1.3- VISIT

Riley thumped the map onto the meeting room’s table, drawing his long pointer with a happy grin. He loved doing this- no matter how much he did it, he loved doing it. “Alright! Let’s run routes.”

Ichika looked him up and down, already disinterested. “Seriously?”

“Of course!” Lily backed him up, giggling. “What, you expect us to go in blind? Are you insane?”

“E-Everything needs a strategy...” Tomi repeated Riley’s words from a while back. “... I-If we don’t... we’ll fall in ranks.”

Ichika grumbled. “Alright. What’s the issue?”

“The issue is that we’ve run these streets way too much.” Riley referred to the different streets in a large circle. “Police would be onto a crowd of Faceless in literal seconds if we took them.”

“Can’t we go underground?” Ichika questioned.

“Good point, but no.” Riley tapped the place they were holed up, showing that the outline of the sewers ran vaguely under the streets. “See, see, see- here. That’s as close as the groups could get.”

Tomi wrung his hands nervously. “T-Too much attention if we piled out there, even at night...”

Ichika then tutted. “You know, you haven’t even told me what we’re doing. It’s been twenty minutes...”

Lily looked to Riley, who nodded for her to get the details for her. “We’re gonna blow up Tanaka Hospital.”

Ichika reeled, not expecting it. “You serious?! People are going to get hurt!”

“You think we don’t care about that?” Riley looked down slightly, signifying disbelief. “It’d be the officers that open fire before we do.”

Ichika paused. “... Are you telling me that you haven’t got a single gun in this entire facility...?”

“In ANY, Facility,” Lily corrected her. “Guns are hardwired to the High Court Security Service nowadays. They could just do a sweep of the weapons not registered and turn them off without a second thought.”

“Besides, why do _you_ care?” Riley pointed to her casually, elbow bent. “You’re a Remnant of Despair. You clamour for suffering.”

Ichika stomped, her hands shaking. “Oh, I know! I’m just...”

Her mouth opened slightly, and she licked her lips in a seductive manner.

“I’m... just thinking about it...” With a smooth voice, a tiny smile trickled onto her face, and she was lost in her own space until Riley poked her with his stick like a fencer jousting a rapier.

“Focus, Bloodlust-ubus.” Riley snickered, happy with his joke, twirling his stick back to the map and hitting it a little harsher than he meant to. “We still- Sorry, by the way Tomi- We still need to figure out the best place to take on this hospital.”

Tomi shook his head, shrugging off the loud noise. “W-We could run separate routes...?”

Lily hummed. “From what angle, though? The hospital has a fence running the perimeter...”

Ichika clicked, pointing nearby. “There’s thick woods just off here. They run about two miles deep.”

Riley nodded, doing a thinking position. “That works. I think we were planning to throw a scouting group in there.”

“We were...” Tomi looked at him. “A-And then y-you... y-you know...”

Riley chuckled. “Oh yeah, I did. Never mind! That’s where we’ll stock for now then. Lily, how many trips do you think it’d take to get all the supplies into the woods?”

“Alone?” Lily seemed shocked he’d assume that she would do it that way. “Um... God, at least five...? Especially on foot.”

“A-Aren’t you worried about patrols...?” Tomi asked gently.

“Course not. Akari’s not gonna try anything like that.” His smile turned menacing. “She never has before...”

Ichika noticed the look. A look of pure anger, even through the mask. Even through the smile. It was 24 years of unbridled rage, waiting to explode out and take everything with it in a glorious fireball. It festered doubt in her mind, even as soon as it was, but once again she found herself enjoying it.

Something about Riley’s trauma was so... appealing to her.

“So it’s settled.” Riley closed the stick down. “Lily, go grab three men and get to moving the goods. Use the rucksacks and things in the storage closet if you have to. Tomi, you figure out who’s on whose team, assign muscle with memory, you know?”

Tomi nodded slowly, mask hiding what was definitely a confused blink.

Ichika got fussy. “Well what about me? What am I doing?”

“You and I are gonna take a walk.” Riley adjusted his mask, motioning for Ichika to follow. “I’ve got somewhere to show you.”

As Lily and Tomi talked about what they had to do, Ichika followed Riley out and down the hallway. Once again, she walked with a definite swagger in her step, her ego showing just by the sway of her hips. It attracted attention from every eye that saw them walking together- lust from the men, jealousy from the women, and attention from anything in between.

“So where are you taking me?” She asked impatiently. “You got a sex dungeon in this place or something?”

Riley laughed at her joke. “No, we call those the Dorms. Where we’re going is special to me.”

“Special to you?” She huffed. “Guess it can’t be that important then...”

As they walked, Riley spun around, walking backwards and getting unnaturally close to Ichika’s face. “But what does that _mean_ , Ichika? Surely I trust you enough to show you something wonderful, don’t I?”

Ichika was instantly unnerved. “... Y-Yeah?”

“Good. Keep walking.”

Ichika was led up a winding staircase, Riley still in front. They went up and up and up until they arrived at the top of the asylum, out onto the roof.

Subsequently, they also arrived out onto the top of the mountain that said asylum was held. Ichika looked around at the glass walls and ceiling, following Riley to the window that he immediately walked to.

There, they looked out upon the entire city below them. It hadn’t occurred to Ichika before- they weren’t on the outskirts of the city, far from it. They were IN Yokohama, just off to the side, up the mountain and above most of the buildings, save the few that scraped the sky. Ichika stayed behind Riley, weary that he was going to pull something.

“... Oh, come on.” He did notice her standing further back, however. “It’s Plexiglas! For obvious reasons. Come see the sights.”

Ichika did as she was told, reluctantly moving forward and looking down on everything with a slight amount of awe. The sun was still high in the sky, but even though it was the city was sparkling and beautiful, busy as ever. Ichika hadn’t seen it like this in a long time.

“How...” She began to ask, but didn’t finish, feeling Riley’s presence turn from violent to calm just by being near him.

“Welcome to Yokohama Mountain Asylum, now known as the Faceless Sanctuary.” Riley snickered. “The last free place on Earth.”

Ichika hummed. “You must be joking...”

“Look down, Ichika.” Riley referred to the city. “How many of those buildings have alarms? How many stores have security cameras? How many offices have prevention tactics?”

Ichika shrugged. “I’d assume all of them, if they were smart.”

“But that’s the issue,” he continued. “They ARE smart. And that makes them dumb. Panicky. Prone to anger. The Faceless roam the streets looking for a way to break out from monotony, and find the brutality of the bat on their skin instead.”

Ichika swished her mouth to the left, trying not to interrupt.

“That’s why it’s so difficult to get what you want in this world. In order to even get your voice heard, you have to suffer loss.” Riley put both hands behind his back. “Getting hogtied like pigs... that’s our fate if we want something done right in this world.”

Ichika hummed. She hadn’t thought of it like that, and she was the one of African-American descent in the room. She’d never had trouble with the cops, not even when she wasn’t in the wrong, but because of her heritage she had been stared at by every type of person under the sun.

The Japanese population didn’t usually see a black woman.

Riley looked at her. “So what do you know?”

“About?”

“About being different.” Riley made it slightly tricky to answer on purpose. “About being someone nobody else has seen before.”

Ichika hummed. “... Difficult. Growing up a black person in a world full of whites, you learn nothing that isn’t beaten into your skull.”

They continued looking out the window, the atmosphere growing a little awkward. While Riley wasn’t affected as much as Ichika was, it was obvious both of them were aware of what it was like growing up without a reason to be alive.

Riley was a nihilist. He would never have a reason to do anything- just what was the most interesting thing to do. It was only now that he had actual plans that he realised how much he wanted to live for them to go through.

Ichika, however, was a Remnant- living was suffering, emotions were painful. She had no want for life, even if you gave her a million reasons why, mostly because those million reasons would be her want to get out. Despair was all she clamoured for, and Despair is what she was trying to obtain.

Bombing the Tanaka Hospital- that was the plan. Riley wanted it because he was fighting his mother- the woman who’d made his life the living hell it was today. Ichika was doing it because of the risks and the idea it could go wrong. The idea that it could end up in despair for the people who were fighting hard to do it- but also the idea that the Despair of watching a hundred innocent hospital works falter and fall was almost mesmerising to her.

The pair weren’t working together.

They were simply fighting for the same goal.

“What an odd time to be alive,” Ichika said finally. “To be working with a shitstain on the Earth like you.”

Riley snorted with laughter. “Love you too.” With that, he pulled away from the window, whistling as he walked towards the staircase again.

Ichika caught him leaving. “And where do you think you’re going?”

“I’m going to go see my grandfather!” Riley looked back. “I’m promise him I’d visit at least once a day.”

Ichika sighed. “You actually care about that?”

“I care more for him than I do you right now!”

Ichika sighed, watching as Riley headed down the stairs, before muttering something to herself. Something only she would hear.

It would take five days for Riley to learn what exactly that was.

**...**

Riley hid his face well from the passerby as he turned into the Yokohama Retirement Home. The woman at the desk looked up from her book, and when she realised that the charred skin around the man’s eyes belonged to Riley she gave him a small, sad smile.

“Hello, Riley,” She said to him.

“Hi, Shinohara.” Riley looked at the other elderly people, all relaxing and enjoying their retirement as they should be. “I’ll take his medication in for him.”

Shinohara’s smile faded. “Here to visit him again...?”

“I said every day until he passes,” Riley reminded her. “And he hasn’t passed yet.”

Shinohara closed her eyes, nodded, and pulled two pills out from under the desk. She handed them over with her long, slender fingers, giving a very obviously forced smile.

Riley was happy to see Shinohara. She was a happy-go-lucky, peaceful woman, wanting to keep themselves to themselves, as much as she would tell you otherwise. She wore tight-fitting, too-small clothing, her current outfit being a pair of skinny jeans and a sweater that covered her E-cups and arms and about 5% of her waist. Light pink hair, dark pink irises and a smile that felt broken without purpose.

Of course, Shinohara had a role in society outside of being a caretaker for the elderly, and that was being used as sexual pleasure for the porn industry. Why else would she let him in here?

Riley nodded at her, heading for the room that his grandfather had been in since he’d been moved there. The man known as Toshio Tanaka had been senile for a long time- ever since his own daughter, Akari Tanaka, decided he was and put him under mandatory retirement at the age of 54. Akari was 48 as it was, and her father, now 78, didn’t respond to a single word that anyone told him, simply sitting in his chair and looking blankly at the TV all day.

Riley had long since wondered if he even knew he was coming there anymore. After all, you don’t tend to respond to Riley Tanaka with a look of blank acceptance.

“Hey, Grand-Dad...” Riley sat in the empty seat next to him, crossing one leg over the other. “How’s it going?”

Toshio said nothing, just watching the TV.

“What’re you watching?” Riley looked at the box, seeing horses and people riding him. “Mmm, the horse races. That’s fun! You like that sort of stuff, that’s good.”

Riley looked to Toshio, seeing the age on his face. Eyes like broken lights, grey and static, and a mouth in a forceful frown from where it had sagged. He had grey hair that would’ve once been a vibrant pink, and his clothing changed from a suit and tie to a bed-robe and slippers.

“Yeeeep... Living the dream.” Riley leant back in his chair, wanting nothing more than the ability to scowl. “... I got your medication. Do you need help to take it again, or...?”

Riley held the medicine to Toshio’s face, making sure he saw them, and to his surprise he did- a very, very shaky hand took them from Riley, not ever looking away from the TV screen, before putting them into his mouth and swallowing with painful audibility. Riley leant forward, looked around the room, pointing to the cup of water, but considering Toshio wasn’t choking or... showing any emotion at all... Riley assumed he was good.

“So...” Riley fiddled with his hoodie strings. “... Did you hear about the new hospital opening...?”

The question was hopeless, as was the entire interaction. Why was he bothering at all, again? It was obvious that Toshio didn’t even try to talk anymore. It was like talking to a brick wall.

Riley bit the inside of his lip. He couldn’t say anything about his plans here- It’d be monitored and broadcast to the High Court in milliseconds. He could talk shit about Akari- it wasn’t illegal- but...

Riley leant back, feeling the plush of the chair push back against him. Sometimes, he wondered if his father was just not even there. That he was talking to a husk, a corpse, and it was moving on its own like on strings.

For the next three hours, Riley watched olden television with his grandfather, ignoring whatever consequences came with that. There was nothing to hide; Riley loved his grandfather, even if he had never ‘met’ him personally. That was what made sitting in the darkened room with a speechless person so harrowing for Riley- the idea that he was just... sitting there with a dead person.

After seeing the time was four in the afternoon, Riley finally hummed and stood up. “Well, grand-dad, sorry, but I’ve gotta go. We’ve got big plans. I’ve gotta head to Main Street, get something from there.”

Riley didn’t really care if the security camera heard that, because what he was going to do wasn’t illegal- it was certainly not a good thing, but it couldn’t get him caught up with the law more than he already was. Giving his grandfather a kiss on the forehead goodbye, he headed out and down the hall, passing by Shinohara who quickly hid her phone between her thighs.

“Alright, I’m off to Main Street,” Riley said as he was passing. “Make sure he’s okay for me later, if you wouldn’t mind.”

Riley had intended to get out by that point.

Of course, he was stopped just before the door.

“Riley, can we talk?”

He’d been expecting this. He headed back to the counter, looking at Shinohara as she pulled her sweater down and tried not to be flustered. “What’s up?”

“... My boss says you shouldn’t come here anymore.” She darted her eyes downwards, almost offended that she had to tell him that and also to adjust her sitting position to cover herself with a blanket more obviously. “I-It’s not that he hates you, it’s just... he knows that... you’re... dangerous...?”

Shinohara couldn’t get a read on Riley as he stood there, hands in his pockets. She got nervous, and then scared, afraid of what he was going to say.

“You’re masturbating at work again, aren’t you Shinohara?” Riley guessed correctly.

“D-Don’t make this about me,” She told him straight.

“... He needs the company,” Riley told her straight. “And Akari doesn’t care about him. His wife is dead, no other children who can do it... why can’t I?”

Shinohara opened her mouth to speak, but couldn’t bring herself to say anything else. Riley spoke the truth, after all- if Toshio couldn’t rely on his own child to give him company, who was she to separate the pair?

Plus... Riley already knew way too much about her...

“... Okay, Riley.” She closed her eyes. “... I can’t get fired over this. So I’ll make a deal.”

Riley waited patiently for the deal.

“There are eight pills left in this medicine bottle.” She picked it up, shaking it. “Every time you come in, you take two from the bottle. So...”

“I have four days.” Riley finished her sentence for her. “... And that’s it?”

“Sorry...” She tried not to meet his diseased gaze. “I’m not authorised to do this, as is. I’m making a deal- please take it.”

“Deal taken.” Riley didn’t need to hesitate. “If it makes you feel safe, go right ahead. I’m not going to judge.”

Riley then leant over the counter, striking a twinge of absolute terror into Shinohara’s heart.

“Put your pants back on and be a professional.”

Riley walked out then, hands in his pockets, leaving the receptionist of Yokohama Retirement Home thoroughly shaken. As her shaking slowed down, she realised that her sweater was riding up on her again, and she managed to catch it before she was facing an indecency charge.

She really had to get a bigger sweater...

Meanwhile, now outside the building, Riley was already slipping his mask back on. There was nobody in sight, no cars on the road- mostly because they were using the highway above instead- and most importantly, the sun was casting a shadow over Riley, letting him just pull his hood up and relax for a moment.

He began walking the same direction as the highway above- South. He had to get to Main Street. He had told Lily he was going there, but never what for; she’d never understand why he was going there otherwise. Truth was, he wasn’t entirely sure if he wanted it that badly.

Could it wait? Almost definitely.

Was it going to? Absolutely not.

“Riley, wait up!” Suddenly, Riley was alerted to the sound of Shinohara running out behind her. She caught her sweater and pulled it down harshly. “Hey... Um... I need to ask you something.”

“If this is about the deal we just made--”

“No, no, that’s fine!” She waved her hands in front of her like she was shaking her head no. “I just... God, this is going to sound so stupid, I...”

Riley waited patiently.

“... I want to come with you.” She looked at him with a flinch. “T-To wherever you’re going. Just to see what it is you do.”

Riley’s smile was at the lowest point it could be- a light grin. “Excuse me?”

Well THIS was new. He’d never been asked this by anyone before, save the other leaders of the Faceless, let alone anyone pedestrian. Shinohara wasn’t untrustworthy, far from it, but he couldn’t find it in his heart to trust her.

So he asked. “What’s the real reason?”

“What do you mean ‘real reason’?” She huffed, the very action causing her sweater to ride up slightly, which she caught without looking. “I just... okay, I kind of want to come with you and get a new sweater, this one’s driving me up the wall.”

“Your job okay with you leaving?”

“Not really. But I saw this same sweater on sale up in Main Street, and I know that’s where you’re going.” Shinohara did the attempt to push her elbows together. “Maybe I can make it worth your while...”

“We both know the answer is no.” Riley groaned. She’d been trying to score a night with him for... what, 3 years now? They’d met in the same circumstances; he’d gone to the retirement home, she’d talk with him a little, one night of drinking later she was still trying to get on his good side.

He had to keep reminding himself she was twenty seven. Sometimes, she acted barely legal with how vulgar she could get with her actions.

“Well, not like I don’t need a friend to walk with,” He told her. “Come on. Let’s get going.”

She beamed. Riley already knew she was going to try and turn this into a date.

**...**

How many people can honestly say that they’re friends with a porn star?

It had only really occurred to Riley on the streets of the lovingly named Main Street. Shinohara was cuddling her arms, walking with her chest hidden, and was still getting looks from everyone; jealousy and disgust from women, curiosity and blushing from men. Almost everyone who passed Shinohara knew who she was- she was famous in the adult industry.

However, when they realised she was walking with Riley, their heads turned away immediately. Riley knew why of course- he was the leader of the largest riot group of all time and had pretty much shaped the streets with the blood of the not-so-innocent.

Riley wore his mask with pride. Shinohara was barely wearing clothes with darting eyes.

“Hey...” He turned to her. “You’re doing fine.”

“Y-You noticed...” She sighed. “I... I don’t feel safe out here.”

“How much of the world is ‘out here’?”

Shinohara stifled a laugh, suddenly becoming a little less body-conscious, but kept her arms firmly along her chest like a bar. Riley noticed the difference between her and Ichika- where she was blocking view to her body, holding her arms across it, Ichika crossed her arms under her breasts to push them upwards like she wanted the attention.

Shinohara didn’t. And that’s why Riley liked Shinohara- she wasn’t some slut who enjoyed the stares of the passersby. After all, she only flirted with people she actually liked.

“So, where are we going?” Riley asked her as they kept walking side by side.

“We’re going to that clothing store at the end of the street,” she pointed. “After that we’ll go where you want.”

“Got it...” He looked around, suddenly spotting something. “Hm?”

A small detour happened as Riley walked across the street to find a protest going on outside of what appeared to be some sort of pharmacy. Riley motioned for his female companion to stay back as he listened to what appeared to be happening.

“We want funding back!” Yelled the man at the front, who was clearly furious. “What the hell are we supposed to do if you can’t stock our shelves for us?!”

Standing in front of the crowd was a man in a suit and tie, barely big enough to be classed as a pushover, let alone threatening. He did have a police officer with him- an officer Riley recognised as Kabutos, who was ready to keep the peace.

“Listen,” He told the thirty-so picketers. “I’m sorry, but you’ll get your money back when Tanaka Hospital has been fully established.”

“Fully furnished, more like!” Another man yelled from the crowd. “I’m 30,000 in the hole because YOU paid for a damn surgery table with MY bank account!”

Riley hummed, looking to Shinohara who nodded and walked the other way. She understood what he was about to do.

Again, the agent at the front made a defensive gesture. “And you will be paid back!”

“WHEN?!” He yelled. “They’re already threatening to take my home!”

Riley began walking towards the group, just as he heard a sentence that he wanted to hear.

“If you don’t give us the money we deserve, we’ll be forced to do something we don’t want to do,” the leader of the group said, a small cheer from everyone else backing him up.

The agent tutted. “Yeah? Who and what army?”

“Him and my army.”

Riley’s voice spoke through the crowd, and they immediately parted the red sea to show him. Kabutos’ hand was immediately on his baton, ready to beat him into the ground, but the agent motioned with his hand to stop him.

“You pay back every yen you owe these people.” Riley cut straight to the point. “Or I’ll be sending the Faceless in.”

Kabutos almost popped a blood vessel screaming back at him. “The hell do you think you are?! You fucking sadist! You’ve been terrorising this place for months!”

“This place being the pharmacy of a man I’ve never met or the Main Street that the High Court pays for?” Riley tilted his head smugly.

“Shut it!” He yelled back. “I have half a mind to splatter you!”

“Kabutos, calm down!” The agent yelled back at him. “... Listen. We can’t pay you back now. We’re telling the truth...”

“Take your sunglasses off and say it.”

The agent did as he was told. “We can’t pay you back now.”

Riley smirked. Of course, he’d asked because he wanted to see the eyes, and right now they were darting around nervously.

“Easy to see a lie when you can see the eyes!” Riley tossed back. “You can pay. You just don’t want to.”

The Agent scowled, which got the people beginning to rile up.

“W-We’re under oath to Akari, Riley. We’ll get fired if we even think about doing it.” The agent, despite his role, actually seemed willing to talk this through. “I promise, when we get the chance we’ll do it. But we can’t without the permission of Akari.”

“So you aren’t GETTING permission!” The leader of the group yelled.

“What a fucking joke!” One of the others yelled.

“Come on!” Another shouted.

Riley shrugged. “Alright, are you guys about to fight, or can I go and catch up with my friend?”

“We’ve got this, Riley.” The leader threw down his picket sign, cracking his knuckles. “About time we got to the base of the problem...”

Riley snorted. “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

He pointed with a powerful expression.

“Go get ‘em, boys!”

Riley snickered, walking the opposite direction. He swore he heard Kabutos’ heavy boots rush after him, only for them to be stopped and the sound of fists beginning to fly.

Riley never even bothered to look back.

**...**

“I don’t know, what about this one? Is it too revealing? Oh, what about this, this is nice...”

Riley was so out of place in the female clothing store that it hurt. Sure, there were a few women with their friends, or a husband and wife couple, but nobody like Riley and, to a degree, no one like Shinohara. Luckily for him however, none of the store attendants seemed to recognise who he was or, if they had, hadn’t bothered to come up to him.

What wasn’t good for Riley is how long this was taking. Shinohara had gotten the bigger sweater, yes- and also three dresses, two pairs of skinny jeans, a straw hat and a pair of sunglasses, all of which she was now trying on in the changing room, in front of Riley.

“Like I said...” Riley repeated. “As long as you’re paying for it.”

“I know you don’t make money,” she laughed at him. “And I will! I just don’t know if people will be ignoring my figure in this stuff...”

“Shino, you’re built like a top-heavy hourglass.” Riley spoke the truth like it was worldwide. “I doubt there’s anything you can do to get people to stop looking at you with that sexual energy they always do.”

“... Except you.”

“Hm?” Riley looked up.

“... Y-You...” Shinohara groaned. “God, sorry... you just don’t seem to care. You don’t care about my appearance, and how I act.”

Riley sighed. “Shino, if this is you trying to confess, save it.”

Shinohara stopped pretty much instantly, looking sadly at the ground.

“... Not to say that...” Riley sucked air through his teeth. “Not to say that I wouldn’t... want, somebody like you, but... I don’t want to see you hurt, you know?”

Shinohara looked up again, her face changing to confusion.

“What I do is dangerous, Shino.” Riley continued. “I’ve seen people develop relationships in the Faceless. I’ve seen those relationships broken, and I’ve seen what trauma does to someone. If either you, or I, or... whoever was to get hurt... Don’t you understand what it’d do to us?”

Shinohara gulped. “... I-I’d never forgive myself.”

“Exactly,” Riley took her hand suddenly, which made her blush. “So I promise you, when I’m done with what I need to do, I’m going to drop the act, and we’ll go get a coffee together.”

“You promise?” Shinohara smiled.

“I promise.” Riley realised, as they were talking, Shinohara wasn’t wearing a shirt. “... Now come on. Put on your bigger sweater and let’s get out of this joint.”

“... God, you’re such a dork!” Shinohara laughed, booping him on the nose and then immediately apologising when such an action caused him pain.

They spent another five minutes in the store, of course. Shinohara was fine with just her new sweater, so they left that store with no bags to carry. She stretched, and for the first time she didn’t need to catch her clothing from flying over a certain point.

“Alright, so...” She looked at Riley, good vibes radiating off of her. “What is it you needed to do?”

“I need to meet with a man who’s going to give me a very dangerous object.” Riley looked at his nails, smiling as low as he could. “You can choose to come with, or you can head back.”

“I’ll take the second option...” Shinohara turned Riley to her. “T-Thanks for coming with me today. I didn’t want to be out here looking like... what I was.”

“I gathered,” Riley told her honestly. “See you tomorrow.”

Shinohara’s smile turned sad. “... Yeah. See you then.”

Without warning, Shinohara leant forward, grabbing Riley’s hands…

And planted a kiss on Riley’s mask. She headed quickly in the opposite direction, into the crowd, and Riley didn’t bother to chase- he knew what would’ve happened if he did.

You don’t just chase a woman with a crush on you to her apartment and expect NOT to be dragged into a relationship.

Riley shook it off. No more distractions.

He had a deadline to meet.


	5. CHAPTER 1- MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Some writers like to boil down headlines of liberal newspapers into fiction, so they say there shouldn't be communal riots, everybody should love each other, there shouldn't be boundaries or fundamentalism. But I think literature is more than that; these are political views which most of us hold anyway.'
> 
> \- Arundhati Roy

##  CHAPTER 1.4- COLLECTION

The meeting was at six, and right now it was five thirty. He walked the direction of the meeting point, that being a home in some random unidentifiable suburb.

These sorts of places scared Riley, quite honestly. Not for any reason other than he was aware of how out of place he was. You see a man in a hoodie wearing a red mask in your neighbourhood, you call the police.

That’s why this was so fun- the idea that he could get caught, and have his entire plan collapse in on itself. He didn’t much care for things going smoothly, save when it absolutely had to. As he walked along the streets of the open-aired cul-de-sac, he found himself wondering if he’d ever get a chance to live like they did.

No, was the immediate response to his mind. After all, he was a Rebel, and would never get what others earnt. “So say the wicked bitch of the High Court.”

A small gasp alerted Riley to the fact he’d said that aloud. He looked up, seeing that he’d been walking right past what appeared to be a man in his sixties, who was looking at him with the tense fear everyone seemed to share. As he and Riley were eye to eye- well, eye to mask- the young boy who’d been with him looked up from his sandbox.

“Grandpa, who’s that?” The young boy asked.

“Ah, um...” He quickly picked up the small child. “Come on, cutie, let’s go inside.”

As they walked away to the door, Riley heard him say something that made his smile rise a little too sharply.

“It’s the man Mr. Itinora told us about.”

Riley walked on, ignoring the fact people knew him here. ‘Mr. Itinora’ was the person that Riley was going to meet- He’d covered his bases to make sure he didn’t raise suspicion for allowing someone like Riley into a place like this. Who knows what he’d said? Well, Riley did- it wasn’t hard to know that Mr. Itinora had been as delicate as possible, and yet had probably still told them that Riley was a criminal.

The address- number 13- was lights off as Riley opened the front gate. He walked down the pathway, seeing the garden hadn’t been tended to in a while, but there were still what appeared to be pink flowers growing in the midst of the inch-long grass. Riley walked to the home and hit the doorbell twice, crossing his arms to wait for whoever was on the other side to come through.

It took a minute. That was fine. Riley knew how long it would take.

At 52, you’d expect the man to look like it. Mako Itinora opened the door with a small smile, but it lost its mark when he saw who was standing there.

“... Ah.” His voice was husky. Powerful. Like he’d talked all his life. “... Get in here.”

Riley was let into the building without much effort. He walked through the entrance way, ignoring the room to the side, going into the main room that had two couches on either side of the room and a flat screen TV that made the place seem modern.

There was definitely no need to be formal with him. Riley knew who Mako was, and knew what his life had consisted of.

“Need something to drink?” Mako asked him, being a good host.

“You got anything strong?” Riley asked back jokingly.

“Soda’s strong, right?” Mako walked into the kitchen, and came back fast enough that Riley knew the bottle of sickly orange liquid had just been sitting on the counter. “That good?”

“Better than nothing.” Riley uncapped the bottle on his own mask, it being sturdy enough to have that happen. He downed about half the bottle before speaking again. “It’s quiet around here.”

“There’s usually a woman running around making everyone’s lives better,” Mako told him, sitting across from him. “Course, she died twenty-something years ago.”

“Where?”

“America.”

“Sounds awful.”

“Don’t insult my daughter, please.”

Riley rolled his eyes from under the mask. “Sorry. I’m still blaming that place for my father leaving.”

Mako chuckled coldly to himself. Riley would never show it, but Mako terrified him. The history this man had in the world of Japan was known far and wide. He was a definition of a second chance- a man who had changed for the better. Nobody in his little town was angry or scared of him, merely willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

They just don’t accept anything from him that he made.

They sat in silence for what felt like ages, when in reality it was only about five seconds.

“... You’ve come for the thing?” Mako asked him.

“You know me well,” Riley replied.

“It’s in her room.” Mako stood, the strange stretch upwards showing he was hurting. “Come on.”

Riley stood too. Mako Itinora, the great serial killer of Japan... reduced to a lonely house man. How the great fall.

That’s what gave Riley his smile back. After all, if he could get away from it all, then maybe so could Riley one day. Right now, however, he had a job to do.

Walking up the staircase and through a very cramped corridor, Riley followed Mako into the room at the end of the hall. He knew Mako wouldn’t try anything- there was no point, after all. Maybe once they’d have worked for the same goal.

Of course, when Mako pushed open the door, Riley knew what he was going to see behind it. That was, a greying room, the pink wallpaper having lost its vibrancy, and a poster showing the girl in question.

“Ini Itinora...” Riley’s smile turned sad. “God. This poster doesn’t get any more amazing to look at, huh?”

Ini’s last show. The ‘Finale of Pure Fun!’, as it was advertised, was supposed to be a world tour of her best work around the world before she settled down and let life take its course. Ini was 26 when her health took a turn for the worst; She had gotten two shows out of her planned 20 done when she was found dead in her hotel bathroom, apparently having had a full organ shutdown. Ini didn’t do drugs- she didn’t drink, she barely enjoyed partying as it was. Doctors were baffled.

It only took the dots lining up, and for Ini to be discovered to be an Ouro Baby- a child that was born via a vicious state of interbreeding- for the pieces to align. Her body gave out on her, unable to sustain itself due to crossed wires.

Riley wasn’t alive when Ini died. Hell, he was barely alive when they stopped talking about her. What he’d said was merely him trying to keep conversation light, though he would admit that he’d listened to her music on more than just an occasion.

“... My little girl...” Mako smiled too, and though Riley could see the sadness in his eyes he didn’t try to use it. “I remember that phone call. When they told me she was coming home in a body bag.”

Riley wasn’t good at comfort. He never would be. That’s why he stayed silent as Mako moved past him, reaching under the clean sheeted bed and took out what appeared to be a sleek, black handled detonator.

“This model?” Mako handed it over, and Riley checked it over, eventually nodding. “Good. Then you’re done here.”

Riley rolled his eyes. “But what does  _ that _ mean, Mako?”

“It means that after this, you aren’t coming back.” He crossed his arms. “Maybe once I would’ve joined your cause. Maybe once I’d have slipped on that grey shitstain of a mask, but not now.”

Riley was already walking back out as they spoke, Mako following thankfully. “Alright, alright. We know our limits in the city, Mako.”

“Clearly not.” Mako motioned with his hand. “After all, you’re here.”

“Because you invited me, silly!” Riley turned, laughing, and it caused Mako to chuckle, if not with a pained twinge. “And trust me, we’re getting this done. We’re still 17-2 on victories.”

As Riley went to turn the doorknob, Mako spoke, and it caused him to stop.

“I know who you are, Tanaka.”

Riley paused. “Then you know why I’m doing this.”

“Mhm.” Mako turned away, walking the opposite direction, into his living room. “Tell the bitch I said hi.”

Riley laughed, opening the door and heading outside, almost leaping up the path excitedly and celebrating in silence. He got piece A! He just needed piece B to be set up, and for piece C to get their ass in gear.

Speaking of Piece C, that’s where he needed to go next. Issue was that they weren’t exactly expecting him- nor was he expecting them, because he despised talking with them. He had a day to kill, luckily, and with the sun beginning to lower in the sky he was all but ready to call it there.

He decided to spin and begin walking for the nearest old manhole cover. Main Street was the first to get the new plumbing systems.

Riley was in the Faceless Sanctuary by nightfall.

Scaling the ladder, he was greeted by the familiar guards, before heading down the corridor, being waved at by every person on their way to their different activities. It was always a wonderful sight, even if Riley was sick of the tediousness of everyone’s greetings. As he walked to the balcony and looked down, he saw that Tomi was busy sweeping the floors, so he called down to them.

“Tomi!” He called, making him look up. “You got a second?”

“I-I’m...” He showed what he was doing by doing it more. “... S-Sweeping.”

“It’s ONLY a second, brother!” Riley hopped up on the railing, freaking out probably anyone who didn’t know that there wasn’t a floor of distance between them. “I don’t really care much about the floor right now.”

Tomi looked up and down, a little afraid, but put his broom to the side and walked through to the staircase. A few seconds later, Riley spun to see him coming up behind him, and beamed widely.

“There you are!” Riley motioned for him to come closer. “Right. You heard back from Lily?”

“S-She hasn’t replied yet...”

To be suspected. Riley wasn’t worried. “Good thing those pagers you modified work, huh?”

“Y-Yes, sir...”

Riley hopped off the railing then, taking a more formal stance. “We got enough food for the week?”

“A-About two, i-if we keep doing it the way w-we do it.” Tomi wrung his hands, trying to hide his excitement at being asked questions like that. “A-And we can always buy more, i-if we don’t.”

Riley cocked his non-existent eyebrow. “Did you do the banking?”

“W-We have 182,000 yen between all the Faceless.”

“Christ. That much?” Riley snickered. “New record.”

“F-Feeding 86 Faceless... i-isn’t as h-hard as I thought...” Tomi looked away then, the smile breaking. Riley smiled back, happy to finally see him trying to hold a better face. “B-But... Lily m-might need our help, t-to deliver some...”

“Hey, she’s got the Pager!” Riley walked past him, and Tomi was following within moments. “So let’s see... the forest is 80 miles from the mountain. Lily’s on foot, took... how many people with her?”

“E-Eight,” Tomi replied shorthandedly.

“Eight people, walking speed, 80 miles back and forth, moving a few kilograms of supplies...”

“It’d take 15 hours for each trip.”

Riley set it up for Tomi to knock down. After all, it’s what he did best- the human calculator, all but ready to solve anything that was thrown at him.

“Eesh,” Riley replied, a little harrowed by the number. “I don’t think I can have that. Too much time in between each day.”

“W-We could send more?” Tomi asked smartly.

“Correct, we could!” Riley nodded. “Tomi, I need you to lead a charge. Take as many people as we’ll need over. Remain unmasked while you can- take public transportation, get off at a stop at least a mile away.”

Tomi repeated the information to himself as Riley spoke it. “... D-Do y-you trust m-me to do that...?”

“Tomi, I trust you to do that more than I trust the new girl.”

Tomi gulped. “I-I’ll do my b-best...”

As Tomi walked off, however, Riley whistled for him to stop, and he turned back.

“What’s 389 times 193?”

“73,340?” He replied instantly.

“You’ll be fine,” Riley laughed. “Go!”

Tomi headed out, smiling slightly from being trusted. Riley didn’t head in the same direction- he was going to head to the same place he always went while the night was growing darker.

And that was the top floor, where he’d brought Ichika. He headed there swiftly, taking no time to slow and see anyone else, before parking himself in front of the glass like he’d done so many times before.

He couldn’t see the hospital from this angle. That was alright- he doubted he wanted to have to look at that ugly building day in and day out. Riley knew how badly Akari would’ve wanted that.

Did Akari know where Riley was holed up? It was a question Riley argued day in and day out. She hadn’t tried to search for him at all- maybe she didn’t know he was even alive. Maybe they were watching him right now through their damn technology, and he wasn’t even aware of it.

Paranoia never set in for Riley, however. No point. Couldn’t let her win.

Of course, Riley wasn’t the only person in the room. There were a couple of people in the more recreational area of the top floor, but upon seeing Riley they seemed to retreat- quote ‘the Boss is here’- at his presence.

“A riot is the language of the unheard.” Riley quoted Martin Luther King Jr. Out of spite, more than anything. The man led peaceful protests and they always turned on him. Riley smirked even wider, putting his forehead on the glass.

Violence was the only way to peace.

“Thought I’d find you up here.”

Riley didn’t need to turn around to know that voice belonged to Ichika. “You come to tell me something?”

“Yeah, actually, I have.” Ichika crossed her arms, walking into view of the reflection. “Does this place have a shower?”

“Bottom floor, blue door.”

“Right.” Ichika paused. “... What exactly are you looking for out there, Riley?”

“Same thing I’ve always looked for. Forgiveness.”

“You think you’re going to find that?”

“No.”

“Then why do you care what’s out there?” Ichika walked over, suddenly running her hands along his chest from behind. “What’s stopping you from putting all of this behind you?”

“A lot more than a Remnant telling me what I can and can’t do.” Riley smacked her hands off of him. “I don’t particularly care for people who try to use sex appeal to get their way, so back off.”

Ichika hummed. “I like it when you talk mean...”

Riley spun to her, looking her dead in the eye. “I am a rebel, not a lawbreaker. We still follow a moral code here.”

Ichika’s smile faded. “God, you’re no fun.”

“We’re on a deadline,” Riley continued. “We need to get this plan in motion this Saturday, and I can’t let anything stand in my way. You have just as much work as I do.”

“Assuming we’re thinking of the same thing...”

“I’m putting you on Morale duty.”

“Oh, not the same thing,” She quipped. “How does that work?”

“Simple. You’re the resident whore; you already know what people want.” Riley’s smile turned evil. “Take a group, no bigger than twenty. Go raid a clothing store, but do NOT bring them back here without smashing those tags.”

Ichika nodded, half-listening. “Mhm.”

“I’m serious. They’re tracking devices- you bring one back here, you damn the entire facility.” Riley grabbed her by the neck suddenly, dragging her forwards, making her gasp. “Do not damn this operation, you hear?”

Almost as if choking was the only way to get through to her, she smiled and giggled. “Yes sir.”

Riley let go of her, and she headed off, already knowing where she was going. Riley sighed as she disappeared from sight, rubbing over his mouth to think for a moment.

The Faceless would be getting ready to sleep, if they weren’t in use. Riley would be wise to follow in their footsteps. Of course, not here- Every time Riley slept, he put the group in danger as it was, what with his nightmares plaguing every waking second of his life.

So that’s why he was already walking for one of the entrances back to the sewers. There were two, one on either side of the facility, with the left one connecting to a good half of the city while the right one just ran to different locations that the Faceless were in charge of.

As Riley walked to the exit, however, he received a beep on his Pager. He quickly flicked it open, seeing that the message was from Lily.

‘URGENT- NEED TO COME TO FOREST BASE IMMEDIATELY’

Riley snuffed his candle of wanting to rest, already pulling aside the grating for the way down.

**...**

The Forest was unnamed, which made it the perfect cover for the Faceless. Riley walked along the natural path, going through the trees to find that the Faceless had taken refuge in a more open-top area. It wasn’t easy to find, but Riley’s intuition hadn’t betrayed him in finding it.

“What’s up?” Riley asked, seeing Lily was standing there sheepishly.

“Riley!” She rushed over, taking his hands. “Oh, it’s terrible! So you know how, it’s like a ten minute walk to the hospital through the trees?”

“... I guess I do now?”

“Well I sent a recon team to go see what we were dealing with, and...” She looked back at the two people, sitting on stumps of the dead trees that had fallen away. “They told me there’s a big machine on the hospital.”

“So?” Riley shrugged. “There are always big machines in hospitals.”

“N-No, not in, ON!” She corrected him. “So I went and looked myself, and... It’s hard to explain. You need to come look!”

Riley was dragged through the treeline, heading along with Lily through a confusing weave of bark. He tried asking a question, only for Lily to shush him as they approached the end of the brush.

Riley peeked out from behind the tree. Tanaka Hospital was literally metres away from the forest, the building standing six stories high, but interestingly enough there was something that was on the building that caught Riley’s eye.

Lily was right. There was something.

It was a 22. Calibre Auto Mounted Machine Gun, that seemed to turn and move of its own accord.

“... That’s new.” Riley blinked.

“T-That’s military equipment, is what it is!” Lily whispered seethingly back at him. “Where did she get the cash to install that?!”

Riley thought back to the encounter he had that early afternoon.

“... I can think of a few ways.”

“Riley, we can’t send the Faceless in against that thing, especially not with our plan...” Lily told him what he already knew. “They’d be slaughtered. We’re not bulletproof...”

“I get that,” He said back. “But what does this mean? For us, I mean?”

“W-We’re not abandoning the--”

“No, of course not.” Riley stopped her before she could even say it. “We’re just going to need to make adjustments to the routes we run.”

Riley expected to have to, but not this way. This was different, even for him- like someone had found out they were planning to do it. That didn’t mean much to him- what it did mean was that they were gonna have to figure out a different way through.

Akari was going to be at the grand opening. Someone had already tried to assassinate her, so there was going to be a protective glass shield across her so they couldn’t just pick her off from a distance- plus, that’s not the way Riley would’ve wanted to do it.

Lily hummed. “Seems even the AI of machines is against us...”

“That’s not what’s against us, Lily. It’s the people who use it.” Riley sniffed, rubbing under his mask to push down a bubbling pain. “Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man.”

Lily gulped. “So... now what?”

“Now, we rest.” Riley began walking the opposite direction. “We’ll find a way around tomorrow.”

Of course, Riley could say that. But deep down, he knew that Lily already knew what he was planning to do.

He was thinking to himself. Thinking about ways to get around the gun. Thinking about running routes that could get the gun shut down. Hell, Tomi would probably be able to hack into it if given the chance.

Issue was... that meant his nightmares were coming true.

If there was one... there was almost certainly another.


	6. CHAPTER 1- MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Shootouts are not gunfights and honour, they're gang wars and racial riots.' - Jessica Savitch

##  CHAPTER 1.5- NIGHTMARES

Riley walked into the forest base with a new sense of purpose. That sense of purpose? Figuring out how to get through tonight without spending it awake.

Restless nights tended to plague him when he wasn’t suffering nightmares. Issue was, he was sleep deprived as it was- working as a unit didn’t really mean anything when he was fighting inner demons alone. He could speak in front of a crowd, 20,000 strong, and still come out of it with shadows behind him.

There was still so much to do. So much that Riley had to get others to do for him. It was obvious that everyone was smarter than him- It didn’t take A-Levels to earn the title of Ultimate Rebel, just a damn good speaking voice.

Meanwhile, Lily was passing her O-Levels in art. Tomi had straight A*’s in everything math-related and could recite Pi down to the seventeenth decimal, and Ichika had an Acting Degree. The Leader of The Faceless was the least qualified to run them, and he couldn’t be more surprised that he was still able to.

And he was still able to.

“Riley!” Lily rushed up behind him, spinning him around from behind to stand in front of him. “What’s going on? How are we doing this?”

“By sleeping.” Riley repeated. “Tomi will be here soon. We can get a better idea when he does.”

“And Ichika?”

“Holding down the fort.”

“You trust her to do that?”

“I trust her not to mess around.” Riley then reached into his hoodie pocket. “Here, hold this for me.”

Riley tossed the detonator to Lily, who caught it and held it for a second before realising what it was. Her eyes widened, looking up at him, her mouth shivering open to try and speak, but all that came out was a squeak of concern.

“W-What...?” She did finally find her voice, though only barely. “R-Riley, this is--”

“A detonator,” Riley finished for her.

“W-Why do you have this?!” She yelled suddenly, attracting attention. “... You... you’re actually planning to...?”

“That was the plan from the start, Lily.” Riley’s smirk turned volatile. “Did you think I was just joking around?”

Riley walked past Lily, who held the detonator for a good few moments before spinning back to him. “R-Riley... you said we were going after Akari...”

“By any means necessary.” He raised a finger as he walked. “She’ll be at the opening. We’ll bomb it, drop the entire building on her. Job’s done.”

Lily’s bottom lip quivered. “But the hospital...”

“... Will only bring pain.” Riley spun like a soldier back to her, who was standing there, terrified. “You know what Akari’s done to people, Lily. Who’s to say she won’t force people into it? An Asylum is only as full of crazies as the amount of sane people on the outside.”

Lily pulled at her hair, getting exasperated. “Riley, p-please--”

“You won’t change my mind on this.” Riley turned dramatically, heading for one of the set-up tents. “I’ve come too far to be swayed.”

As he walked past the Faceless nearest to him, he stopped and put a hand on his shoulder.

“When Tomi arrives, send him straight to me.”

Lily made no attempt to stop him as Riley pushed back the tent’s flap, heading inside. Big enough a whole bunch of bedrolls, there were already Faceless inside it, getting ready for bed more than likely, who immediately saluted Riley as he walked through. He dismissed them with a smirk and a wave of his hand.

He hadn’t conditioned them to do that. That’s just something they kept doing.

Riley walked right to the back of the extraordinary tent, ignoring everything and parking himself on the grassy floor. He leant onto the tent side, hearing the back-and-forth of footsteps and conversation outside as The Faceless moved things into position. He and Lily had had the argument many, many times; the argument of whether it was better for good to die for bad to be eradicated, and they continued to disagree.

Riley, of course, never cared for human life. Corruption caused the higher-ups into doing things they knew they could get away with- Everything Riley had gone through was because someone had the power to do it to him.

He wasn’t bitter at the world. Just one person who was making the world a darker place. He faced everything with a sort of black-lensed Mentality- odd, considering he was pretty much mental.

After all, it took a very special breed of asshole to run a group literally hell-bent on finding Peace through Violence.

As Riley yawned into his hand, he watched as Lily also came through the tent, a look of anguish on her face. She did pretty much the same thing that Riley did, just with an aura of timidness, walking straight to where Riley sat and sitting right next to him.

They sat in silence for what felt like an hour, until eventually Lily got the courage to say something.

“... C-can we not fight?”

Riley looked at her from the corner of his eye. “Mm.”

“I... I’m sorry, I just...” Lily hadn’t let go of the detonator- both a good sign she was loyal, and a good sign she was thinking about it. “I want to make things better. I do. I just don’t know how good of an idea it is to blow up the hospital.”

“You saw the gun,” Riley said bluntly.

“I... I saw it.” She handed the detonator back. “I wanna help you, Riley. You haven’t led me astray yet. But I need to know for sure that you’re fighting a good fight.”

Riley didn’t hesitate. “It IS for good, Lily. Think about it; getting rid of Akari doesn’t change her laws. It doesn’t change the fact that her hospitals have the highest diagnosis of trauma in her patients, and it doesn’t change that you’re more likely to be put on meds than any other doctor in the world.”

Lily listened intently, keeping quietly.

“She’s gone crazy with power, Lily.” Riley felt like a broken record as he slipped the detonator back in his hoodie pocket. “They’re hidden behind so many defences that the only thing we can do is the ultimate extreme.”

Lily suddenly scoffed a laugh. “M-My mom used to say the Ultimate Extreme was skydiving.”

Riley rolled his eyes, taking off his mask so that she knew he wasn’t angry.

“I promise you, the second all of this is over, we’re done.” He turned to her, looking her in her eyes. “You can do whatever you want with your mask then. Burn it, trash it; I don’t care.”

“You speak like I don’t want to be here,” She replied, smiling sweetly.

“I’m speaking from experience, myself.” Riley grinned widely.

Lily looked away, almost like she was scared by the smile that immediately lowered as far as it could go. Lily wouldn’t be here if Riley hadn’t found her. That much was true. Yet she slotted into his plans so well, and never complained, never talked back. It was only this one- the plan to murder one of the most corrupt superpowers in the world- that she was holding back.

They weren’t related, weren’t even friends. Lily had never met Akari in her life, even actively talked against her policies.

So why was she so unwilling to do this? It was a question Riley couldn’t answer.

Not yet, anyway. When all was said and done, he’d probably learn the truth.

That’s when Tomi arrived, and headed quickly to the back. “Y-You wanted to s-see me, sir?”

“Tomi! Welcome.” Riley stood up, stretching out. “I got the thing.”

“T-The thing...? O-Oh, you m-mean...” He looked over at Lily, who gave him a confused look.

“She knows now, don’t worry.” Riley pulled out the detonator again, passing it to him. “Here buddy.”

As Lily stood, Tomi did a once over and immediately gasped in amazement. “T-This is new... It’s r-really new. U-Used for setting off fireworks... Programmable, too...”

“I need your splendid little mind to set this up for me.” Riley snickered, watching as he toyed with the button, too. “I need it to be able to set off C4.”

Both Lily and Tomi replied at the same time. “How much?”

Riley replied to Tomi. “Depends. How much C4 would destroy a six-story hospital?”

“W-Well, there’s  4,184,000,000 kilojoules in a kiloton.” Again, all of the numbers Tomi spoke came out instantly, like he had it memorised in advance. “I-If you want C4, it’ll detonate at 26,550 foot per second.”

Riley had no idea what he was talking about at this point. “Got it. How big of an explosion is that in Stupid People Speak?”

Tomi sniffed. “B-Big?”

“Right.” Riley sighed. “Look, I’m not looking for Hiroshima levels of destruction--”

“15 Kilotons?”

“Yeah, sure. I’m looking to blow up a six-story hospital from the first floor. How much will that take?”

Lily cut in. “Where are you even planning to get C4 from, anyhow?”

“I’ve got a guy on the inside,” Riley said forebodingly. “Tomi?”

“Um... W-Well...” He wrung his hands over each other. “T-Taking into account  that the heat of detonation of C4 is 6.5 times 10, to the power of six, joules per kilogram, about the same as that of TNT, the detonation of 1 pound of C4 releases 3.0 times 10, to the power of six, joules of energy.”

Riley blinked. “Do you just read this stuff off of a website, or?”

“T-That means...” Tomi was on a roll, so now he was ignoring Riley. “I-If we were to put a pound of C4 on every wall facing the same direction, on all four sides... We’d bring down the building in such a way that it’d collapse every floor in on itself.”

Lily and Riley shared a look- Riley’s was of pride, while Lily’s was of fear.

“... I-Is that to your s-satisfaction?” Tomi asked with a pleading face.

“Awesome.” Riley gave him a thumbs up. “Knew I could count on you, Tomi.”

Tomi smiled gently, sitting on one of the pop-up beds that he was used to sleeping on. Lily wasn’t done however, moving around Riley to make him look at her.

“ _ Where _ are you getting the C4?” She repeated, forcing him to answer.

“Like I said, I’ve got a guy on the inside.” Riley beamed back. “He’ll be dropping off the stuff on Wednesday.”

“Who?” Lily tried a more forceful way of speaking.

“Alright, chill, great owl.” Riley just joked back. “We can’t use names. They’ll get slaughtered if the High Court finds out they’re doing this for us.”

“Who is ‘They’?” Lily’s eye twitched. “W-Why are you being so difficult?!”

Riley tutted, just smirking. “Get some rest, Lily. We’ve got a big day ahead of us.”

Lily looked honestly exasperated as Riley walked over to the bed across from Tomi, lying down on it immediately and putting his mask under it. The fact that he heard Lily walking away and groaning meant he’d probably annoyed her, but he couldn’t find it in his heart to fix that.

He was exhausted. He shouldn’t have been, but he was.

So that’s why he found himself passing out in an instant.

**...**

“Tomi, need your location.”

Riley spoke into his walkie-talkie, waiting for a reply. He was holed up in a place he didn’t recognise- some sort of recreation room, probably inside the hospital- with the sound of the rotary gun going off overhead, mowing down whatever it was aiming at.

Lily and Ichika were with him. How did it get so bad? Even as the silence filled the room, he could feel their judging eyes.

“Tomi!” Riley picked up in volume. “Tomi, please, respond...”

“He’s dead.” Ichika said it so matter-of-factly that Riley instantly believed her. “We’ve got to get the fuck out of here. We failed.”

“Not yet...” Riley tossed the walkie-talkie aside, pacing around the pool table. “She’s still in the building. If I kill her it’ll be worth it.”

Lily swallowed. “Y-You’ll put us all at risk!”

“And the risk warrants the reward!” Riley yelled back. “You told me you’d give your life to see this plan go through...”

Lily walked over, yelling as she went. “I said I’d give mine, not theirs!”

“They took the same oath!”

“The oath DOESN’T WORK, Riley!”

... Riley’s smile seemed so toxic at that moment. How he wished to pull it from his face and remove all traces of it. Right now, it just looked like he was slightly grinning at the idea of watching people he genuinely cared about die, and he wanted nothing more than to prevent that.

Of course, that’s when he heard something, ducking under the pool table as the door flung open. Whoever it was, they didn’t waste any time unleashing a torrent of bullets into the room, clearly having been going door to door and unloading a clip into the room.

Ichika died instantly, hitting the ground with an unceremonious thump. Lily didn’t get such a treatment, hitting the area just in front of Riley, blood gushing from her neck and shoulder. Riley took no excuse in dragging her under the pool table, holding his hands over her neck to try and stop the bleeding.

He knew it was futile. Especially considering Ichika’s body was being dragged out of the room. A soldier, probably military, threw the pool table back, revealing Riley and Lily under it.

Riley looked right up at the barrel of an assault rifle, awaiting judgement.

... When the trigger was pulled, Riley flew up out of the bed, taking deep heaving breaths. A nightmare was a nightmare, after all- things he’d been plagued with for what felt like years. Failure was a main topic in them- he constantly found himself on the receiving end of someone’s gun, or captured, or tortured, imprisoned, beaten, bruised...

Nothing he hadn’t dealt with before.

Riley got up out of bed. He was still wearing the clothes he had from last night- not a big change from the usual, either, because pyjamas were a scarce commodity for him. He stood up, seeing everyone else was asleep, and rightly so.

It was the middle of the night. No light, no conversation- just the sound of people snoozing. As Riley walked to the entrance of the tent, he made sure to pull the blankets over Lily.

He even apologised gently, even though she’d never know for what reason.

Riley headed out of the tent then, looking at the area they were currently putting different places in. They wouldn’t need much- place to sleep, place to store food- but it gave them something to do, and to keep busy was to keep people from faltering. Riley hadn’t put on his mask, simply because he’d wanted to get the night air on his scars.

So it was an odd realisation that there was something new in the area- a light that was coming from a car, a good 20 metres away. Riley looked over, confused, but instantly recognised the license plate.

... He hadn’t been expecting a delivery until Wednesday.

Riley walked over, watching for anyone who could be seeing this. He didn’t think it was a trap, but at the same time he’d been wrong before; Nightmares, mostly. He had to figure out what was going on.

Approaching, he then noticed something else- the boot of the car was open, and three duffle bags were inside. His smile grew as he looked over the bags, opening the zip of one to spy the filling.

And sure enough, the explosives- C4, mouldable like clay- was inside. He re-zipped the bag that he’d opened, more than happy with the contents. He carefully dragged the bag out of the back.

... The detonation was immediate.

**...**

Riley snapped awake once more, his eyes scanning the damage that didn’t exist. That was weird- it was the first time in a long time he’d had a double-nightmare like that. Only difference was that this time he understood that he definitely wasn’t in a nightmare, and that was the less than pleasant feeling of his face burning.

The sun was coming through the little bug-net windows of the tent. Nobody was in bed, besides him- meaning that he’d slept through something important.

On his feet instantly, Riley grabbed his mask and walked out into the sunlight. The Camp was getting started on breakfast, rations of R.M.E. that Riley had willingly purchased with his own laundered money. He didn’t bother speaking with anyone, however, heading in the direction of his nightmare, but stopped when he saw no car.

Instead, he saw Lily, who was helping push up a boundary stone with two others. Where they’d found a rock so large didn’t really matter to Riley- what mattered was that he told someone where he was going.

He walked over, putting a hand on the rock as they pushed it into the ground. Lily jumped, but relaxed when she saw who it was. “Hey, Boss.”

“Hi, Lily.” He rubbed the back of his head, slipping his mask on. “I’m off. Need to get back to the sanctuary.”

“Your alarm didn’t go off today,” Lily reminded him.

“I know. I turned it off.”

Lily’s instantly sceptical expression showed that Riley had been caught out on that lie. Especially when she fished into her own pocket, revealing that she had the little beeping device that would wake Riley at 10:00 sharp every morning.

Riley would’ve scowled if he could. “I’m going to need that back.”

“Why bother with that lie, Riley?” Lily called him out on it. “You’re allowed to sleep in. That was me giving you some time to rest for once.”

“Yes, well, sometimes resting just gets me killed,” Riley growled to himself. “What time is it?”

“10:13.” Lily grinned widely. “You didn’t even really go overtime.”

“That’s still thirteen minutes wasted.”

“Will you slow down? You’re going to exhaust yourself.”

“Anything to get this plan in order.”

Lily turned to him as he began walking off into the forest. “You’re going to hurt yourself!”

Riley didn’t respond. He knew she was right, but he didn’t exactly care. His life had no meaning, after all.

As long as the plan was in order.

As Riley walked, he kept thinking to himself. Nothing was really out of place at all- he had to take his mask off as he approached the line of the forest, but he did so with pride, pulling his hood up as he walked out onto the main highway’s pavement. People were walking and talking, ignoring Riley as they went past, reminding Riley he was just part of the scenery.

He sat at the bus stop then, waiting for the next one to come along. Back into Main Street, back into the sewers, back to the sanctuary. That’s all he needed to do today.

Of course, he did then remember about Toshio and how his visits were being restricted. It hurt, especially when he cared so much about both his grandfather and the woman behind the desk of the building that held him, but he knew that arguing would just cause a scene.

He had to accept what he’d been told. Something some people couldn’t do.

He sighed. Tuesday- what did he have planned? Besides the visit to Toshio, Riley would have to go talk to another good friend of his to get the gun offline. Then he’d need to check in on the delivery, make sure it was going to the right place. Following that, he’d need something else- another thing he knew he’d been putting off.

Now was a better time than ever, as he was heading into the heart of the beast on Saturday.

Riley didn’t have a phone- he had a pager, which couldn’t be government provided and thus couldn’t be bugged, and then occasionally a walkie-talkie that he’d have on running missions. That meant he’d be using a payphone.

That meant needing money. He didn’t carry any on him.

That meant needing to go back to the sanctuary, getting money, finding the nearest payphone and calling not one, but three people.

Riley groaned, putting his head on the back of the bus stop.

What he didn’t realise was that there was someone else there- someone he’d just alerted to his position.

“You cool, dude?”

He looked over. He hadn’t expected to see a 20-something year old woman say that to him, but he also hadn’t expected to see anyone there at all.

“Mm... Long day.” Riley made casual conversation, simply because he couldn’t do anything else. “Got a lot to do, and not enough money to do it.”

“You need a cash injection?”

“Not from a random woman, no.”

The woman nodded. “Righteous.”

... They sat in silence for a good minute.

“... My name’s Tetsu. Tetsu Kuno.”

Riley just gave her a look. “Riley Tanaka.”

“Oh, you’re--” Instantly, Tetsu seemed to recoil, but kept herself stable. “I know you. You’re that guy Akari’s on the news blabbering on about all the time.”

Riley smirked a little wider.

“Don’t do this, don’t do that- God, she can just drone, can’t she?” Tetsu continued. “You don’t seem that bad, though...”

“I don’t tend to just attack random people in the street, no.” Riley pulled his hood back, feeling a little more comfortable around the woman. Ginger hair, freckled face, what appeared to be knitting needles in the hair. She wore a two-colour dress in different shades of blue, slim-fitting and yet somehow baggy as it was.

“Strange how that works,” she joked. “She made it out to be that you’d murder anyone who tried speaking to you on sight.”

Riley laughed, genuinely. Tetsu also laughed, perhaps to try and keep on his good side, but the laugh was a good thing to share.

As the bus arrived, Riley realised they were both standing. “Going to Main Street?”

“Yep! You got your pass?”

Riley shrugged. “Don’t need one if the bus is empty.”

Riley looked at the bus, and realised that the bus was pretty much full, save two seats at the back. He sighed.

Tetsu smiled, motioning for him to follow.

“Come. I’ll pay for your seat.”


	7. CHAPTER 1- MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

##  CHAPTER 1.6- TUESDAY

Riley didn’t want to call the conversation ‘soul-sucking’. As much as Tetsu was a very nice woman, it’s clear she didn’t understand a word that was being told to her about Riley’s plans, spoke in hushed whispers as not to alert the other members of the bus.

Riley wore his mask on the journey. Tetsu hadn’t requested it, per say; she’d simply told him that everyone else was rather accepting of his ideals, and were probably just as hyped as he was.

And yet somehow, Tetsu also carried some sort of darkness in her words. She talked about NEO Hope’s Peak and how she was a teacher there- the Ultimate Surfer, which excused her outfit- but also about her origins in Hawaii and how she had moved to Japan to escape an abusive relationship.

Perhaps that’s why she was so for his cause- after all, wouldn’t you be angry if you moved to a new place just to deal with the same stuff as before?

Tetsu giggled. “You’re quite the conversational expert, aren’t you?”

“I get that a lot,” Riley lied. “You speak to find other people on your side, not the other way around.”

“I guess that’s why you’re such a big topic nowadays.” She looked at her hands as she interlocked her fingers. “Mask on, Mask off, you can’t hide your face. Everyone knows who Riley Tanaka is.”

“And everyone knows why Riley Tanaka does what he does.” Speaking in the third person, Riley continued her statement for her. “You see the Red Mask, you run, because things get ugly.”

Tetsu kicked her legs gently, making her dress move like water. “Never been to one of those riots.”

Riley sighed. “Don’t bother. Don’t ruin your pretty face...”

“So where exactly are you going, anyway?” She looked over at him, waiting for the response.

“Just to a payphone. Need to make a call.” He didn’t tell her anything else.

Tetsu then gave him a sly look. “... Something tells me you haven’t got a clue what you’re doing, huh?”

“On the contrary. There’s just a new obstacle in the way that I need to get around.” Riley adjusted the sleeve of his hoodie. “And I still need to find some way to get the floor plan of the hospital...”

Tetsu’s eyes widened, mouth opening in a silent gasp as she quickly scanned the area around them. Her eyes fell on a piece of paper which she grabbed, quickly scribbling some words onto it, before handing it to Riley. “Here.”

“What is...?”

“I know a guy.”

Riley looked at the paper and felt his eyes glaze over. He was looking at an address.

An address to a place called ‘Shui’s Cartography Store.’

“... How did you... know that?” He quickly wrapped the note up into a small scroll-like version.

“Why do you think?” Tetsu leant in, still smiling... and her eyes almost turned to wells of darkness as she seemed to show a different side. “We’re all slightly crazy for fighting for things we’re passionate about.”

... After about three seconds of silence, Tetsu leant back, laughing aloud like it was just a joke, leaving Riley thoroughly confused. Maybe even slightly scared; he wasn’t sure if he could still feel that. All Riley knew is that in his hand, he held an address, and an address to something he really needed. This... was new. He wasn’t used to getting things from people for free.

So for the first time, he didn’t get off where he was supposed to. Main Street’s stop came and went without fanfare- it was now a new place in Yokohama he was looking for.

Shui’s Cartography Store, here he came. Of course, that did mean he also got some more time to talk with Tetsu, and as she swung her legs cheerfully, Riley didn’t expect it to turn on a dime like it did.

“So, what are you going to do when you lose?” She asked him, a strange expression crossing her face.

“We’re not,” Riley responded without a beat of pause. “And why give me this address if you think that?”

“Oh, I never said I  _ wanted _ you to lose.” Tetsu scratched her cheek. “Just saying that you’re going to. Going up against Akari is suicide, and you know it. I’m rooting for ya, though!”

Riley glanced at her from below the mask. “Very back-and-forth, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, it’s kinda bogus but whatever.” She adjusted her dress. “We’ll be arriving at my stop next. I take it you’ll be getting off there?”

“Yep, that’s the plan.”

“Tubular!” She replied, patting his shoulder. “To be honest, I wasn’t even supposed to get on this bus. My boyfriend, Erebus, was supposed to pick me up, but some mover’s van changed his usual route. Kinda a bummer, his car smells like coconuts, but whatever!”

“Thought you said your boyfriend was dead...?” Riley questioned her speech.

“Oh, my ex is. He committed suicide by cop.”

The way she said the sentence made the entire thing sound like she was proud of that- the cheerfulness of it, followed by the popping sound at the end of the ‘P’ in the final word. She drummed on her thighs with her fingers, looking out the window and past Riley’s bare-smile face to see what was coming up.

“Oh, look! There it is!”

Riley looked out the window at that moment, and if his face could descend any lower that it already was he’d be doing it in an instant. What he looked at was a beautiful white and blue building, light blue stained windows and framework in gold, with a large sign above the entrance as people walked around the main grounds.

Hope’s Peak NEO.

The second the bus stopped, Tetsu rushed down the bus aisle, thanking the driver for his time. Riley followed with a solemn nod, hopping off the bus and onto the sidewalk like he was making an effort clearing the gap. The students of the school, at least a few of the older ones, waved and greeted Tetsu as she rushed inside, late for a class that was beginning with a sickening chime.

[DING, DONG, DING, DONG...]

“God... At least have the decency to change the bell.” Riley checked the address, trying to compare it to a signpost anywhere as a spill of elderly people came off behind him. “... At least put something in place so I can see where I am...”

Riley scanned the area, lost without purpose. As he did, a boy who’d been sitting on the wall surrounding the planters looked up from his book, raising an eyebrow and then widening his eyes. He drummed the arm of his friend, who looked over and checked out the situation for himself, and had pretty much the same reaction.

Riley pretended he didn’t notice them, walking down the street a little in the opposite direction, making sure his mask wasn’t going to come loose. Hope’s Peak NEO knew Riley, it seemed; at least those who tried to did.

As he did walk down the path, he felt the presence of more pairs of eyes as that first boy began running around, giving hushed warnings to the others as he followed Riley in a wide angle. Riley did eventually find what he was looking for- a cable car, one that seemed to head up to a street about half a mile above the entire building, which in itself had to be 4 stories. Riley walked over to the cable car, seeing that a security guard had been stationed at it.

The guard started a spiel that he’d probably done a few times before. “Classes have started, kid. Back you go.”

“I’m not a student.”

“Then you shouldn’t use this thing at all.” He turned the page in the newspaper. “The sign clearly says student access only.”

“I’m asking you to make an exception.”

With a single pair of fingers, he pulls down the top of the Newspaper so that all the guard needs to see is a glint of that crimson red.

To his surprise, the guard actually immediately slid back in his chair, clearing distance. “T-Tanaka! What the hell are you doing here?”

“Looking for Shui’s Cartography Shop.”

“Why in the hell do you need that?”

“To get a map of Tanaka Hospital.” Riley blinked under his mask. “That all?”

The guard looked to the left fearfully, almost like he was about to ask something else. With no other option, however, he took a shaky breath and hit the override button on the machine, forcing it to open without a scan of a student card.

“P-Please... go... and never come back.”

“No promises.”

Riley walked onto the Cable Car as it began lifting Riley up towards the streets. He looked back to see the guard immediately get on his radio, so Riley would be running as soon as he was getting off the car it seemed.

The journey up took 3 minutes. The music playing in the Cable Car was some generic nonsense, clearly only there for journeys like this- for people who had no confidence in other people. It wasn’t even really a cable car, either; it was attached at the bottom to a chain that carried the box up to the street above. The wire was probably to keep it powered so the music could play.

Riley hummed along, recognising the tune. “This passes for music nowadays...?”

Eventually, the cable car did arrive at the top, and the door opened to let Riley through. He did so, walking straight through, but didn’t get through without being accosted.

“Stop there!” The guard at the top yelled at him.

Riley replied by just walking straight out of the building, ignoring the guard, of which he left utterly gobsmacked. He walked out onto the street’s pavement, seeing the way to get into the town and walking towards.

The city he’d arrived at... He didn’t recognise it. At all. How long it had been there, how many stores that could potentially be in it- nothing there seemed to be jogging in his memory. The area was completely foreign.

Which meant he had to work quickly.

Checking the address again, he realised that it was an impossible one- This place had no buildings that wasn’t a store of some kind, which he confirmed by walking along the street and seeing the different types of general stores that populated the city. However, if it really was only stores, that meant that Shui’s Cartography Shop would be way easier to find.

So he began going down the list. Slowly but surely, making his way along, each store seeming more absurd than the last. Butchers, Bakers, Pawn Shop, Photography Studio; all things that seemed like it  _ should _ be in a town, but with such random placements that it made no sense for them to be there.

It took until Riley saw inside the Opticians and he saw a familiar crest of Hope’s Peak that it finally occurred to him why that was. Of course- all the stores in the city were owned by Hope’s Peak Students. Their talents, if not better used elsewhere, were being used for profit. After all, paying for something done by the apparent best of all time was better than getting it done by an average person. You’d even be willing to pay way more to do so.

Riley realised at that moment that looking around the city was hopeless if he didn’t ask for help. He turned to the nearest person and called for them, seeing them turn his direction with a mixture of confusion and annoyance.

“Shui’s Cartography Shop ring a bell?” He crowed at them, keeping his mask hidden behind his hood.

The man responded with a huff. “Second left after the Research Lab. You can’t miss it.”

Riley pretended to tip a hat before continuing up the street, finding the Research Lab in all its glory. It wasn’t as large as it had been made out to be, taller than anything- it was essentially just there to be a landmark. The colours stood out in the vibrant six of Hope’s Peak NEO logo, with a pair of wolf head insignia forming a cross across the entrance. Riley made a mental note to look into what was going on in that building, but right now, he had a job to do.

There was a Cartography Store he needed to visit.

Doing as he was told, for once, Riley missed the first left, heading to the second and down the alley that followed. Well, not an alley- a walkway, where many different stores reigned.

From the looks of things, however, a lot of them weren’t open. Hadn’t been for a long, long time. Riley looked through the window of one of them, and saw that the place inside looked almost perfect save for the scuffed rug.

A question drifted to the front of Riley’s mind, which he answered by backing up and looking at the sign that hung above it.

‘THE WINDS OF AEGIS’

Riley’s smile turned sour. Probably some sort of voodoo-style cult stuff in that building. Though as he went along, he realised that all of the stores shared a similarity to each other- a perfectly well-kept sign, but an abandoned interior, lights off, doors closed. None of them had a shutdown policy, either; none of them seemed to even have a sign they’d been closed down.

It wasn’t like they weren’t supposed to be open... It was getting close to rush hour.

Riley walked the entire way down the street before he noticed it. The first sign the area he was in wasn’t just decoration. He backed up a bit, looking into the windows of the store, seeing the lights were on.

Once he checked the sign, he knew for sure he was in the right place.

Shui’s Cartography Store had a welcome sign in the door as he pushed it open.

Entering the fairly modern interior, Riley read from the holographic board about prices and what the owner could do for him. None of it really appealed to Riley, but he did head to the counter and hit the bell to call the owner who wasn’t present.

He waited for... two minutes. At most. He got bored soon after, seeing that the openable part of the counter was already pushed downwards, so that was just an invitation for Riley to go look in the backroom.

What he found, however, was not exactly what he was expecting. The door to the back, clearly marked ‘storage’, led to a staircase that headed up to the second floor. Riley trotted up it, enjoying his little adventure, and arrived at a hallway with a door further down and another staircase further still. From the outside, Riley would’ve expected this- unlike the other storefronts, this one actually looked like it went higher than the first story. He pushed open the door to see what he could find.

Riley walked in to find something else. There wasn’t a storage room past that door.

It was an apartment. Unlocked, yes, but technically Riley was still breaking and entering right now. Did it stop him? Not at all- he waltzed into the room like it was his own, seeing everything that he’d ever need to from just the first glance.

It was a three room apartment, with two doors on either side of the room. His bedroom was in the upper right corner. His kitchen was in the upper left. The rest of the room was made to be a living accommodation, with things that he could use. Riley knew that the owner wasn’t going anywhere just by looking at the fact his bed was nailed to the floor.

There was a couch over in the bottom right of the room that Riley walked over to, seeing the flat screen TV was off. No games consoles, no DVD player. The table in front of the couch was high enough to access by sitting, and from the few ink stains Riley determined that this was where the owner must’ve drawn his maps.

That, however, wasn’t the only table. There was a side table, too, one that held two objects. Riley had mistakenly picked up the first thinking it was a TV remote, only noticing it was a tape recorder from the three buttons on it.

PLAY. STOP. REWIND.

Riley looked it over, his eyes instead scanning the second object- a picture frame that held a pair of people, one male, one female. While the blonde male seemed less than excited to take the picture, he had a small smile as the female smiled like she was on top of the world, despite what appeared to be burn marks along her face.

Riley could relate to her, and he hadn’t even known this woman existed until today.

When Riley hit the play button on the tape recorder, he expected it to just be something like a shopping list. Maybe a reminder of the owner’s work.

What he didn’t expect to hear was the female voice of someone who sounded on the verge of tears. “Hello, Shui. It’s... Hibachi. I’m... sorry this is the way you found out but I’m not doing this face to face.”

The tape recorder was rather tinny, so Riley had to concentrate to know exactly what was going on, but he could definitely hear cars on an overpass... meaning that the woman- Hibachi- had recorded this outside.

“Shui, I... I don’t want to record this--” The sound of her sniffling, before she got it back together. “N-No... I... I’m leaving you. I’ve already called the divorce agency, and they’re going to send you the papers, but... But I’m doing this tonight, because I can’t do it any other time.”

Riley looked at the picture as he listened. They seemed so happy in the picture that it almost felt impossible.

“You... You already know why. We fought about it. We always fight about it. You keep... pushing me aside to work, and... And you stopped, for a while, after we got married, but you...” Hibachi sounded incredibly frustrated as she spoke, like she genuinely didn’t want to be doing it. “You just use me. Use me as a vent you can scream into, and get a response to, and... That’s not love.”

A pause as another car went past.

“... But you... do love me, don’t you?” She sighed, hard. “And you’ve... done nothing to say otherwise. You still take me on dates, and you still call me beautiful but... it just feels like you don’t mean it anymore. Your work continues to... it just makes you feel less and less real.”

Another car drove past.

“So I’m leaving tonight, Shui.” Hibachi continued. “If we had kids, I’d be taking those too, but... you know. Work’s more important. But...”

Another stifled sob.

“I... I-I still... love you. Shui, I know you’re still in there. The man I fell in love with and married. And I know hearing this will crush you.” Hibachi was definitely crying at this point. “And it crushes me to talk about, too. I hope that you understand that. So please... the second you realise... the  _ second _ you realise... Call me. Please.”

The recording ended, just like that. Riley was quick to give his opinion. “How long ago did  _ this _ happen I wonder...?”

When he’d realised the recording had actually ended, he hit the rewind button and put it back to as close to the original position as possible. From what he was getting, Shui was a workaholic- a man who couldn’t control his life to the point where he lost his wife. Was that a terrible thing? Yes, of course it was. Unfortunately that’s... kind of what Riley was doing, too, wasn’t it?

Riley didn’t bother looking at anything else- there was a door in between the bedroom and where he was standing, but a sign hung on it already told him he didn’t want to go in it, having the words ‘Dog Room’ on it.

So instead, Riley headed along the hallway and up to the next floor. There was another staircase, after all. He wasn’t going to leave without making absolutely sure the man he was looking for wasn’t there.

So when he opened the door, and for some reason it opened a lot slower, he was ready to be ambushed and locked away. What he found, however, was the insides of a storage room, crates stacked high, with bookshelves full of ink bottles and candles. Riley looked inside a nearby crate, seeing inside that it contained rolls upon rolls of parchment, a special kind of paper.

Riley was going to question why it was there before he remembered that he was standing in the Cartography store.

... Suddenly, he realised he wasn’t alone. Looking up and to the right, he saw a massive window, light flowing into the room like God himself was outside.

And standing there... was a man Riley had never met before.

“Alright then.” The man said, swirling the wine in his glass about. “Let’s Talk.”

**CHAPTER 1- END**


	8. CHAPTER 2- BLOODSHED FORGOTTEN BY TIME

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”  
> ― Mother Teresa

##  CHAPTER 2.1- LIFE CONTINUES

Riley had never felt awkward before.

Sure, he’d been in awkward situations, but he’d never actually felt the sting of awkwardness. The conversation with Shui had been pretty sporadic; He’d asked a question, Shui would answer in a single sentence, and then they’d continue to sit there without a second thought.

Shui had at least given one reprieve- the fact he’d shown what was inside the Dog Room. That being Dogs- he had three of them. A British Bulldog, a Golden Retriever and a Pomeranian. All three of them sat on the couch with Shui, looking like a personal army for him, made of the three most unthreatening dogs of all time.

“... So--”

Before Riley could continue, Shui cut him off. “Why are you here, Riley?”

Had Riley not introduced himself beforehand, that sentence would’ve freaked him out. “I’m here because a woman gave me your address. Said you could help my cause.”

“Of course.” Shui seemed... angry at that sentence. “Riley Tanaka, the Menace of Yokohama. The Faceless Chief. The one who continues to riot because rioting is the only way he’ll get his name out.”

Riley felt his smirk lessen, before growing wider. “So you’ve heard of me?”

“Of course. You’re Akari’s kid.”

There was what he was waiting for. “Is she a friend of yours?”

“Contrary.” There was that rapid fire answering he did- constantly faster on the draw that him. “Akari Tanaka is the worst thing to happen to the High Court. I haven’t agreed with a single thing she’s done since getting in.”

“She ruined my life.”

“She tried to take mine.”

Suddenly, a solemn agreement had crossed the pair. They’d both been damned by Akari, it seemed…

That made the next question that much more loaded. “So what does this  _ mean _ , Shui?”

“It means I’m going to help you. Last thing I want to think about is how badly Akari abused you.” Shui sighed, pinching his nose. “Not like I’m out of work…”

Riley snickered as Shui began scratching behind the Golden Retriever’s ear, causing its leg to start scratching the air.

“It’s very rude of you not to introduce me to your friends, you know.” He smirked.

Shui took a deep sigh. “Sure. The bulldog’s named Spitz, The Pomerian’s called Cottonball.”

At her name, ‘Cottonball’ yapped twice.

“Take it you didn’t name them?”

“An old flame did,” Shui remarked. “I got the Golden after she left.”

“Oh.” Riley knew who the ‘old flame’ was, but kept quiet. “What are they called?”

Shui paused. For some reason. “She’s called Yanayashi.”

“Odd name for a Golden.”

“Clumsiest dog you’ll ever meet. I adopted them because she was a Homewrecker… literally.” Shui, for the first time since the meeting began, had a grin on his face. “Reminded me of someone I… was quick to lose.”

Riley understood quickly. “You’re suffering.”

“Have been for a long, long time. Why does that have to change?”

Shui and Riley had a mutual understanding of each other in that moment. They were both aware of how badly the other wanted the life they’d lost, and were both willing to fight to get it back, and yet they needed someone else or, at least, many someone elses to do it for them.

Only issue was, Riley was actually asking for his help directly.

“Here.” Shui suddenly handed him a phone. “To keep in touch.”

“Akari tracks these devices--”

“Not this one. I removed the chip.”

Riley paused, and then took a deep breath in. “Oooooh, there’s a chip…” He really hadn’t thought about that. Of course there was a WAY to track the phones- he just thought it was digital, not physical.

“I’m surprised you didn’t know that.” Shui rubbed salt in the wound.

“So what do you need?” Riley told him.

“Time. Give me a day and I’ll have your map ready.” He flicked his wrist suddenly. “Alright, we’re done here. Clear off.”

And just like that, it was over. No fanfare, no handshake. Just… Riley leaving Shui’s store without any idea if what he’d done would actually do anything. Out onto the street again, he noticed that the atmosphere of the street had changed- it was no longer the abandoned feeling it had once given him, more of a collection of memories that Shui was holding onto in his maturity.

Welp.

Back to the bus-stop.

Riley went the exact same path he’d walked to the address, but in reverse. Past all the weirdly placed shops, past the Research Lab. Just heading towards Hope’s Peak NEO with this smug grin on his face. The plan was getting back into action as soon as it had been derailed, all thanks to one girl.

Riley didn’t really know how he’d go about thanking her. Maybe she didn’t want to be thanked. He knew for sure he couldn’t wait outside Hope’s Peak NEO to do so, and wouldn’t be able to go into it, either.

He walked past the guard again, who didn’t even try to stop him, hitting the button to head back down. The building was admittedly beautiful- Riley didn’t like the colour white at the best of times, but he could see the appeal in such a futuristic building. You get into Hope’s Peak, you’re set for life; you get into Hope’s Peak NEO, future generations would be, too. That’s why Riley, even after arriving at the bottom and the guard at the bottom gave him a scowl, he watched a car drive up and drop off another teacher, and felt a small twinge of pain in his heart.

Hope’s Peak NEO was the best thing to happen to some people. And yet somehow, smothered in the darkness of past mistakes, the original building was still being used, too, essentially training children to die in Killing Games.

It’d been over fifty years of killing games. Approaching 4 digits of seasons. People just loved the games too much to let them go. At least in NEO you never had to worry about a door getting kicked in and being dragged away in your sleep.

Riley never got to experience that for his killing game.

As the bus arrived, Riley remembered that game and shuddered. Nightmares still plagued his very core. He’d never actually felt fear, during it- but he’d felt disgusted. Pained. Things that the average man doesn’t. Sixteen Students, in a sort of back to basics style game, with the single twist that one of the students knew far too much about pain. He’d done things methodically- acting a lot like the kind of student people would unfortunately enjoy the personality of too much. He made an enemy of himself, claiming himself the mastermind, even when he wasn’t.

So imagine their surprise that, right before the double murder… Riley had actually become the Mastermind, using a special device that the game had  _ willingly offered him. _

It allowed him to tell it one thing. And whatever he asked, it would immediately do for him, no questions asked.

So, he asked to be the Mastermind. And switched places with the real Mastermind.

And then won the game.

Riley still remembered the execution- much like the end of the conversation with Shui, there was little fanfare. Riley convinced the four students who were left besides him to vote for the Mastermind’s freedom instead of their own, and then watched their brains get splattered on the floor by the execution. He just didn’t really care past that point.

He immediately knew it was Akari’s influence that forced him into the killing game. And now, two years later, Riley was going to get revenge over it; not just for that. Not just for himself. For all the pain that Akari had ever had the audacity of inflicting pain on.

When the bus arrived, Riley waited for the students to come off of it, getting recognized by a few and scaring a lot more. With the bus empty, Riley got on, ignoring the bus driver waving him off, knowing already he was safe to just do that.

When a bus is completely empty, you get to ride for free.

**…**

Riley arrived at Yokohama Retirement Home a little later than he expected. His detour had cut him an hour that he wouldn’t usually have skipped, but with a new ally and a new device he couldn’t exactly complain.

Shirohara met him with a wave and a blush. “H-Hey, Riley.”

“I’ll take his pills in for him.” Riley smirked, getting given the pills.

“You’re awfully chipper. What happened?”

“Nothing… just getting ready to live an actual life for once.”

Riley walked through, leaving Shirohara to think naughty thoughts while he headed to Toshio’s bedroom. He took his seat next to Toshio, almost excitedly, ready to tell him the good news.

“Hey, old man. How are you?” Riley asked the still silent man. “Things are getting interesting. I’ve got a new friend.”

Toshio simply opened his mouth, and Riley put the pills in it for him, which he swallowed with help of water. Riley spent the next hour talking with Toshio- well, talking AT Toshio- about everything that was going on, about Shui and the plan to finally get the hospital under rubble. The security camera had no light over it- it hadn’t since he’d come in, and he’d already made sure it wasn’t just being covered.

The security cameras in Yokohama Retirement Home just didn’t work, and Riley could use that to his advantage.

“Maybe soon I’ll actually get away from all of this,” he joked. “Maybe I can finally settle down somewhere that actually wants me around. Take you and Shiro with me.”

He paused. Shirohara… He did promise her that, didn’t he? That when all of it was done, he’d finally stop.

“Don’t panic, Grandad.” Riley chuckled. “What does this mean for me? I guess I’m still trying to figure that out myself. I’ve always had a tenacity for the unknown, haven’t I?”

… Riley’s smile was sad. He knew that he wasn’t talking to Toshio anymore. Just the wall of the person he’d become.

“... Well, I won’t keep you any longer.” He stood, looking at the TV to see what Toshio was watching. “Enjoy your… horse racing.”

Riley walked out again, straight past Shirohara who didn’t try to stop him. He walked back out into the sunlight as he looked around, confused as to what to do next.

What did he need to do now? Getting out his pager, he checked to see if he’d gotten any messages, and was actually pleasantly surprised that he hadn’t. Things were progressing smoothly, that meant; he didn’t need to do anything, or go home anytime soon.

In that case… it was time to deal with a thorn that’d inevitably prick his finger if he didn’t deal with it.

“Captain Morrison Valesquez…” Riley said it aloud, slipping his mask over his eyes. “I believe I owe you the answer to a question.”

Riley pulled out his new phone, dialing the number for the police. If it couldn’t be tracked, then the police couldn’t follow back on the number. He waited for a moment, counting how long it took on his fingers.

_ “Yokohama Police Department. Where’s the location of your emergency?” _ The macabrely cheery tone of the Police’s receptionist sounded down the receiver.

“8 seconds. You’re getting sloppy.”

At the exact sound of his voice, he heard the sound of a coffee cup being dropped. _ “... Riley?” _

“That’s the name.” He waited for her to put the call on speakerphone. “Everyone aware we’re talking? Good. Let’s talk- I want to speak to Morrison.”

_ “Already here, Riley.” _ The sound of Morrison’s voice echoed in Riley’s ear.  _ “What do you want?” _

“Morrison! My good friend.” Riley paced the sidewalk. “How’s attempting to track a 1900’s device treating you?”

_ “I don’t understand you, Riley.”  _ Morrison ignored the jab.  _ “You call us, expecting us to… what? Praise you for evading us for so long?” _

“Kinda, yeah.” Riley scratched his cheek. “Unless you’re willing to admit I’m better than you at this. Let’s be honest- you don’t take your job very seriously, do you?”

That’s what broke him.  _ “I take my job VERY seriously, Riley. I’ve done everything in my power to get you behind bars, but every single time you find the way out. I’ll admit, you’re creative, but that’s about it.” _

“Charismatic, was honestly the word I was looking for.” Riley checked his nails, looking up and down the street. “And you know you can’t arrest me. I’ve never actually done anything.”

_ “That’s where you’re wrong.” _

Riley almost mouthed those words as they were being said.

_ “We’ve got you accountable on several charges of insinuating a riot. The Security Branch of the High Court have now made it illegal to do such a thing.”  _ Morrison was speaking as though Riley didn’t already know this.  _ “You’re facing life in prison, the second we can get our hands on you.” _

Riley rolled his eyes. “Yeah? How are you gonna do it, Moron-son?”

Riley swore he heard someone laugh at that, and it made him smile wider.  _ “Well, you’ve got a lot of nerve thinking you can weasel your way past our defences with your spies, so we got a spy in YOUR mix, too.” _

“Wow! Valesquez, you’re learning!” Riley laughed. “If only you’d learnt sooner, because that spy was  _ soooo  _ obvious.”

Morrison chuckled.  _ “Yeah, nice try. We know you don’t know you--” _

“Uninai Canamolo.”

… The phone went silent as Riley waited for some sort of witty comeback, but none came. Uninai had attempted to slip in amongst the rioting crowd of Faceless by wearing a mask that looked similar enough and pretend to protest, probably looking to get into the Asylum and report back to the police about its location. See, thing is, Riley had enforced a very specific dress code that day, like he does for every riot- If you weren’t wearing a mask, you were a civilian, but if you were wearing one, you were adhering to the dress code.

So, to nobody’s surprise, Uninai showed up in khakis and romper boots while the rest of the Faceless were instructed to wear sandals, and were promptly uncovered and beaten.

“Alright, are you done?” Riley smirked even wider.

_ “You called us.” _

“And now I’m wondering if you’re done with the conversation.”

Morrison sighed.  _ “What are you planning, Riley?” _

“Nothing you need to know about,” Riley replied. “Just know that one day, it’s all going to fall down for you.”

Riley hung up the phone with flourish.

“Right!” He clapped. “That should’ve bought me enough time for--”

“TANAKA!”

“--That!” He turned to look down the street, seeing Kabutos was standing there, already pulling out his nightstick. “Kabutos! How are you?”

“You know exactly how I am!” He replied furiously. “You’re under arrest for instigating a riot, asshole!”

Riley shrugged, already dragging his foot backwards. “Sorry, no can do! I’ve got a meeting to get to!”

Riley turned, running down the street. Kabutos immediately began chasing him, sprinting full force like a bull- a good comparison, considering he saw red. Riley wasn’t as fast as Kabutos, and he could already hear the sound of Kabutos’ heavy boots thundering behind him. So, right when Riley was sure Kabutos was close enough, he zipped sideways into the nearby alley, hearing Kabutos not able to use his momentum in the same way.

It was always funny. Riley and Kabutos had run this gauntlet many times- a game of cat and mouse that Riley had never lost. Riley clambered up onto the dumpster in the time that Kabutos took to turn back to the alleyway, seeing Riley perch up onto the fire escape.

“Kabutos, seriously.” Riley rolled his eyes below his mask. “We can’t keep doing this.”

Kabutos pulled his taser gun from his belt, firing it at Riley, who didn’t even move as the range of 35ft that the gun had was a single foot short. He yelled, throwing it down before clearing the six foot vertical of the dumpster from a standing position, reminding Riley why Kabutos had spent so many years of his adult life chasing him.

Riley was used to the back alleys of Yokohama. He knew everything about them, mostly because for a while he was using them before the sewers became a viable option. Kabutos, however, had walked the main streets for a lot longer- Kabutos was 38, and had been in the police force for 18 of those years. He’d worked tooth and nail to get to where he was.

As expected of the Ultimate Enforcer.

Riley climbed the stairs, talking all the while, making good time before Kabutos was even halfway up. “Two sides of the same coin, constantly chasing each other through thick and thin. An Enforcer and a Rebel- it’s like a TV show!”

Riley was already running the rooftops before Kabutos got to the same level. He leapt from one building to the next, the roofs being the same height, before turning back and seeing if Kabutos was actually following.

The answer was ‘Faster than calculated.’ Riley ducked a punch and jumped a nightstick swing, rolling backwards before Kabutos could grab him. “Hey!”

“Riley Tanaka, you WILL comply.” Kabutos swung his nightstick up onto his shoulder. “I’m not afraid to use brute force to get what I want.”

“I’ve noticed.” Riley snickered, examining Kabutos’ dark, dreading eyes. “Your hands are dirty with the blood of the abused as it is. You’d be more than happy to beat the man who gave your child hope senseless.”

Kabutos roared, storming forwards, unleashing a flurry of blows that Riley avoided with bare amounts of luck.

“You have to let him go, Kabutos!” Riley was still yelling as the fists were being swung. “He’s made his choice! You can’t hurt him anymore!”

“I’LL MAKE THAT DECISION!” Kabutos swung wide, and though Riley did manage to duck under it a kick was thrown that sent Riley to the ground. Riley was grabbed around his neck, beginning to be choked, which he managed to fight out of by grabbing Kabutos’ belt and whatever was on it, swinging and bludgeoning him with it.

Kabutos toppled backwards, grabbing his skull, and it was Riley’s turn to begin choking him as he put him in a chokehold, hand still gripping whatever it was that he grabbed, which he took the opportunity to look at.

His face fell as low as it could as he kneed into Kabutos’ back, sending him reeling forwards so that Riley could get a better look. In his hand was a very smooth rock- a rock that had painted over ten hundred times, giving it an aurora-type look. Riley tossed it upwards hard, ducking under another swing and kicking hard into Kabutos’ leg to force him on his knee before stamping twice onto his back.

Riley leant down and caught the rock before it could hit the ground, using a malicious voice to speak to the still furious Kabutos as he knelt on his neck to pin him. “Where did you get this?”

Kabutos spat at Riley, missing him by a mile. “Fuck you.”

“That’s not the correct answer.” Riley looked at the rock again. “This isn’t yours. You should know better.”

“It’s my son’s, alright?!” Kabutos yelled back. “He gave it to me for ten years on the force!”

“And you kept it?” Riley tossed it up and down again. “It’s a good way to remind him what a stuck-up brat you are, I suppose. Hoarding things that people give you to remind you what you’re doing is a ‘Good Thing’.”

Kabutos struggled, and that gave Riley the chance to snap the handcuffs off his belt and put him in them in under ten seconds. He growled angrily, but couldn’t do anything to him as Riley stood, checking over the rock and tutting when he saw the paint was chipped.

“Jesus.” He sighed. “You know, I should kill you. Honestly, putting you down would make so much sense right now… but no, I’m not gonna. Like I said… never killed anyone in my life.”

A lie that he would continue to believe as truth.

“What are you going to do when I show up at your door?” Kabutos barked as Riley began walking away. “Are you going to accept me beating your face in?!”

“No, no.” Riley waggled his finger, already at the fire escape again. “I’m gonna watch as you throw the first stone.”

Riley stepped down the fire escape steps, hearing the incessant ranting of his rival. They’d find him- it wasn’t like he was in a warehouse somewhere, he was just on the roof of someone’s apartment building.

He’d wasted enough time. He had to get back to the main base.

**…**

Riley walked into Yokohama Mental Asylum with a small smile on his face. He walked past the people he led, seeing them immediately notice what mood he was in and stood aside for him to pass. Some of them saluted, some of them just looked afraid.

He leant over the balcony, seeing that Ichika was talking with a recruit in a way that he couldn’t recognise. He rounded down the stairs, walking towards them with a stride.

“And another thing!” Ichika was just ranting at him. “Who the hell are you to say that I can’t run this group?! I’m fighting alongside you, you ungrateful--”

“SIR!” The Faceless being targeted instantly saluted, and Ichika turned to see him behind them. “How are you?”

“Could be better, could be worse,” Riley tilted his head both ways with each sentence, then stood still. “You’re free to go. Ichika, take a walk with me?”

Riley walked, and Ichika followed with her familiar haughty bounce. “What?”

“You’ve built a reputation, huh?” Riley snickered. “Careful where you’re pointing fingers, Ichika. You might point at the door out.”

“Nobody here gives me any respect,” she huffed back. “I’ve tried to command them, but these assholes don’t want anything to do with me. It’s bordering on Racism.”

Riley spun, his mask’s eyes locking with her undercovered ones as she nearly walked into him.

“Racism is the prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person  _ or people  _ on the basis of their member of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.” Riley’s smile was dangerously wide, mostly because the statement managed to anger him to no end. “My team isn't racist. You’re just a bitch.”

Ichika looked offended as Riley turned back, continuing to walk, and Ichika had to dash to catch up with him. “Yeah?”

“My team is 34% minorities,” Riley gave her the facts. “I know it’s true because Tomi says it is.”

“F-Fine.” Ichika huffed, crossing her arms as they began the trek up the stairs. “We’re going to that damn hangout area of yours, aren’t we?”

“I need a break from everything. I met with that corrupt cop, Kabutos, today.” Riley arrived at the room by the time that sentence was finished.

“Oh, THAT asshole,” Ichika replied with poison. “The sort of man who’d take a selfie of him arresting a black man with the caption ‘Hashtag: another one off the streets!’ God, I despise people like him.”

“Welcome to the Faceless!” Riley spun to her as he walked to the window. “Everyone here does.”

As Riley turned, however, something finally spiked in his memory, and he felt the grin of someone with nothing to lose begin to return. His nightmares- he knew they’d come true. His mother was never the kind of woman to play fair, after all. If he knew her; and quite frankly, he did; he knew that Akari would be happy to bring an armada of guns into the fray.

So that’s why Riley had to remove those firearms from the equation.

Ichika sat down at the bench instead, turning the conversation into more of a shouting type one. “So what the hell are you even trying to accomplish?”

“Murdering my mother,” He replied swiftly, “followed by more of the same. I made you a Faceless on the basis that you’d assist with that.”

Ichika raised an eyebrow. “And what’s that supposed to suggest?”

“Simple.” Riley spun to her, an entirely new plan forming. “I need a police station raid to go smoothly so we can strip them of their big guns. The nearest station is stocking for Akari’s arrival so they can put down anything that looks ready to fire back.”

“And you need my help, because…?”

“Because you’re a woman.” He clicked his fingers. “A black, woman. A black woman in Japan, where the black population is less than 1%.”

Ichika’s smirk finally emerged. “Really now?”

“But what does this mean?” He marched up to her, leaning over to be eye level with her sitting position. “How good are you at acting?”

“I feel like that’s supposed to be an insult,” She told him sharply.

“Maybe it is.” He smirked back.

Ichika paused, twirling her hair as she thought about it.

“When are we going?”


	9. CHAPTER 2- BLOODSHED FORGOTTEN TO TIME

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Whenever the art of Medicine is loved, there is also a love of Humanity.'  
> \- Hippocrates

##  CHAPTER 2.2- CRYING WOLF

The answer to the question that Ichika asked was ‘eight o’ clock sharp’. After all, ten minutes was all it took to bring Ichika up to speed on one of Riley’s favourite techniques that would be performed at the edge of sundown.

Riley loved giving names to things. The Sanctuary of the Faceless, different strategies and techniques, even the Canopy Base that was being set up under the canopy of the forest near Tanaka Hospital, but nothing came close to his favourite dirty tactic in the book- Protocol Crying Wolf.

The plan was simple- Ichika was going to run distraction at the front of the station, while Riley and a small team of five entered in the back. Ichika would not be wearing her mask- she’d be dealing with the attention up front, while Riley and his boys were going in through a back office. Of course, Riley already knew the layout of the station- he’d been there so many times before.

He’d been there yesterday, actually. It had a new hole in the top part, but it was still the same.

“You know the plan?” Riley said as he stood outside the station.

“Of course.” She huffed. “I’m not stupid.”

“Boss, can I ask?” One of the Faceless asked swiftly. “Why don’t we just kill Kabutos? We can get rid of the hardest part of the tumour that way.”

“We’re not killing Kabutos!” Riley shot back. “He’s still got sins to repent for.”

The Faceless shut up, looking away.

“Alright.” Riley and the five were hidden in the blind spot of the security camera, avoiding the metal gaze. “Soon as you’ve gathered enough officers, we’ll make our way in the back. Don’t be afraid to improvise for extra attention.”

Ichika took that opportunity immediately, instead tearing her dress’ cleavage open wider. Riley instantly felt the five male participants turn away as she also unclipped her bra. 

“You’re buying me a new dress after this.”

Then, Ichika took two steps back, barely avoiding the camera, messed up her hair and punched herself in the jaw, causing her lip to split, before bursting through the station’s door with a mighty yell. “HELP ME! HELP ME!”

Riley had a good vantage point to check the damage, and he saw as immediately the female officer running reception was already getting up. “Oh my God! Ma’am, are you okay?!”

“P-Please…” Ichika’s voice dropped to despair as she collapsed to her knees, hugging into the woman’s legs. “D-Don’t let him hurt me anymore… N-No more… N-No…”

Riley motioned for the others to slide the wall, still making sure that Ichika was putting on a show. Other officers had gathered, too, one wrapping a blanket around her as she wept like she’d actually suffered through what she was proclaiming happened to her. Riley could still tell that it was just an act, though.

It sickened him, slightly. But he’d seen enough at this point.

Rounding to the others, one of them had already lockpicked the window, and was gently pushing it up. Nobody was in the office the group slipped into, and after a quick re-arrangement of the furniture they created an easy escape. Riley quickly matched the corridor to the building, figuring that they were two rooms down from the armory.

“Armory’s got a code,” Riley explained to his team. “We either find it or we break in. Your choice.”

The reason why the Faceless wore their mask was to make them indiscernible from each other. Hiding their hair below hoods, wearing the exact same clothing when possible, they were practically five other Rileys- save the grey instead of the red in the mask department. The team split off, taking their own routes around, ignoring and avoiding anywhere that had an officer inside.

Riley, on the other hand, had his own idea. Quickly scaling the staircase like a panther, he rushed to the top floor, moving silently through the hall to the end, where the office of Kabutos and Morrison were.

In this station, officers got their offices depending on their rank in the force. As Morrison and Kabutos were the only police Sergeants, they got a room dedicated to them.

More than likely, that’s where that code for the armory was going to be.

Riley opened the door and moved in through the crack. He knew it wouldn’t be locked- after all, Morrison was in there, just typing away at the computer. Riley already knew Morrison knew he was there, so he just cleared his throat and chuckled.

Morrison sighed. “You’re ballsy, you know that?”

“Better than being a no-nonsense Enforcer,” Riley snided. “What are you doing here? I thought YOU of all people would be taking a day off on a tuesday.”

“I’m not stupid,” Morrison repeated to Riley. “I know a clear attempt at diversion when I see one.”

Of course, Riley tested that theory. “Then you know why I’m here.”

Morrison sighed, turning to him for the first time, seeing he was going through the drawers of Kabutos’ desk. “Riley, your obsession with murdering Akari is going too far. I get that, morally, she’s a bad person, but she’s opening this hospital to help others.”

Riley laughed coldly. “And arming the doctors with a handgun is a good idea, is it?”

Morrison flinched. “We’re not doing that--”

“Yeah, actually, you are.” Riley straightened up, his smile glinting in the light. “You’re going to be giving every single staff member in the hospital a gun that they may use on their own merit. Have you even  _ seen _ Akari’s way of thinking? She thinks 9mm is the second type of shot you should be giving someone.”

Morrison drummed the table. “You’re lying. I can hear it in your voice. You expect me to believe Akari would do such a thing?”

“But what does this MEAN, Morrison?” Riley spoke with all the edge of a double-edged sword; yelling would get him caught if he wasn’t careful, but it was oh-so-satisfying to see the fear on Morrison’s face. “You put yourself in the pecking order of a madwoman. After all, she did this to me!”

He yanked away his mask, reminding him of the trauma he’d gone through.

“Tell me, Morrison!” Riley slammed both hands on his desk, making little trinkets on it jump in surprise. “You’re the head of this department, aren’t you?! What’s the plan, huh? What’s the plan that Akari would have you believe?!”

Suddenly, this wasn’t a conversation. This wasn’t even an argument.

This was an interrogation.

“Akari has specifically said that the guns we’ve gotten aren’t for the hospital,” Morrison spoke naturally, yet fimickingly as he realised he had no idea what he was talking about. “She left a message saying the guns were to be dropped off at a specific location so the High Court’s Department of Security could take them to the Air Force.”

Riley leant in nice and close, seething Morrison with his words.

“And why does an Air Force need handguns?”

Morrison replied coolly. “For protection.”

“Against what?” Riley licked over his teeth. “The planes?”

… In that moment, Morrison seemed to be frozen in time as he tried to figure out in his head what exactly had just been asked of him. It was a simple question, and yet somehow, in his mind, he couldn’t come up with a logical answer.

Riley was right. What would an Air Force- a trained battalion of pilots manning technological marvels of aircraft- need with handguns that were not only a complete waste of money for the Air Force to have, but be only necessary in close range when anything in the air would be dead before it even hit the ground?

Morrison stopped and started, his mind failing him.

Sure enough… Riley had found the loophole he’d never thought to question.

“And you call yourself an investigator,” Riley insulted. “Don’t you see? Akari has been playing you for a fool. Your loyalty to her has proven nothing because she’s been dishonest with you from the start.”

Morrison put his head in his hands, putting his elbows on the desk. “N-No… I…”

“You what?” Riley crossed his arms. “You thought a woman who wore a mask would never tell lies?”

Riley leant in again, this time to just whisper in his ear.

“It’s harder to tell when someone is lying when you can’t see their full face, huh?”

Morrison stood, violently pushing his chair backwards. Riley took a step back, his grin still wide. “I-I… I have to make a call.”

“No, you don’t.” Riley took his phone off the receiver before he could grab it, and then snagged his mask too. “What you need to make is a choice. If you let Akari have that delivery of weapons, you’ll be putting not only lives but the entirety of Yokohama in danger.”

Morrison looked at him. It wasn’t hard to be taller than Riley, but Morrison made it look easy, being 6’ 2’’. He puffed out his hair as he scratched at it, unable to figure out why Riley would even be telling him this.

Riley just smiled back. “You can feel it, can’t you? The feeling of having your life curb stomped under the bars of a prison cell.”

“If I do as I’m told, I’ll be held responsible for the deaths of thousands.” Morrison looked at him, adjusting his glasses sweatily. “If I don’t, I’ll be fired and dragged through the Earth.”

“As a solemn reminder,” Riley quipped, “The Faceless don’t use guns. Never have, never will. Too Loud. Too Violent.”

Morrison nodded, gulping. “You’ll take them just to destroy them.”

“Melt them, actually! We’ll make shields.” Riley made the motion of a shield bash. “We’re creative like that. Guns are made to be bullet resistant.”

Against all of this, Morrison still had questions. “And when you take the guns… I’ll be blamed for it. I’ll probably be killed by Akari just for talking to you now.”

“... So fight it.” Riley extended his hand suddenly. “Fight the tyranny and the weights that shackle you. We’re not evil, Morrison; we’re tired. Tired of the lies that plague everything. That plague you.”

Morrison looked at his hand. “I-I c-can’t… I…”

“Morrison.” Riley suddenly lost his traction as he gave him an almost pleading look. “Don’t let bloodshed be what defines your life.”

Morrison’s hand shook as he lifted it. He paused, almost expecting Riley to shake for him, but after a bit more consideration he was the one who put their hands together in a strangely cold handshake.

Morrison bit his lip. “T-The code is 9224329. It’s on this paper.” He handed it to Riley, giving him a hopeful look.

Riley took it. “Wonderful. Trust me, this is going to make a world of difference.”

“Riley… after all of this is done, what are you going to do?” Morrison adjusted his glasses again. “Are you going to stop? Or is this just what your life has become?”

Riley shrugged. That’s not something he wanted to answer, especially because of his next move. “Real odd question; do the security cameras record audio?” 

“What? No... Why do you--”

He pointed to the security camera in the room, instantly reminding Morrison of the biggest mistake he’d ever make.

Riley had tricked Morrison into looking like a Faceless sympathiser.

Morrison just looked gobsmacked as Riley walked backwards for the door. “Y-You… You tricked me.”

Riley laughed, already one foot out the door. “But what does that  _ mean _ , for you?”

Morrison couldn’t reply. Good thing, too, because Riley was already running the corridor and down the stairs, into the armory where he found one of the team working on the code. He slid into their place, typing the code with excitement.

“Where have you been, Riley?”

“Ruining a career,” Riley responded swiftly. “Where’s everyone else?”

“They’re outside. An officer got too curious--”

“Good job!” Riley patted his shoulder as the shutter opened, revealing literal crates of handguns behind it. “Just like we planned.”

The other Faceless looked at the crates with terror. “S-Sir… we can’t move all of these with just six people! The window in this room isn’t big enough!”

Riley, ever the quick thinker, noticed something that made his heart drop. He grabbed a belt of grenades off the wall, his smirk looking more like a backwards snarl. “How far did you want to go with this…?”

“S-Sir?”

“Get the team out. Regroup with Ichika.” Riley pulled all the grenades off the belt. “Guns are bulletproof, but not blast resistant. This’ll ruin them all.”

Six grenades, six crates. Riley pulled the ring off one of the grenades, burying it deep into the box before yanking the lid over it just in time. The crate held quite well, actually; the explosion was clearly enough to raise alarms, so Riley had to work far quicker. Unfortunately- or rather, fortunately- the Faceless had disobeyed the order, pushing the heaviest object in front of the door and tying a chair to the door handle.

The second crate scattered wood chippings everywhere, but the melted plastic of the guns was all Riley needed to see to know his plan was working. An officer finally made it to the door, trying almost desperately to open the door, while the Faceless grabbed a grenade from Riley and did the same thing he did.

Crates three and four destroyed. Riley bumped arms with his cohort as they got ready for five and six, but Riley heard the glass on the door’s window smash as yelling began echoing in the hall behind them. After stuffing his grenade into the box, the Faceless rushed the hand trying to pull the chair free, drop-kicking it with a sickening SNAP that alerted Riley that the hand had been broken.

Riley got his crate blown up a moment after. He laughed as the shutter tried to close in emergency lockdown, simply ducking under it and into the armory once again. The Faceless was holding the door closed at this point, as swarms of hands came through to try and pull the door open. He was grabbed by many of them, who held him in place, forcing Riley to intervene with a combat knife he found.

The screams of anger turned into screams of pain as Riley dragged his team member away from the door, seeing the smashed window was barely holding now, and soon would give the officers a good entrance. Riley threw the Faceless towards the window, of which he slipped out with major effort.

Riley only took one look back when he heard the window cave in, finally. He wasn’t looking at the officers- he was looking at Morrison, who just stared from behind the crowd with a mixture of fear and resentment. Riley did a two finger wave, clambering up into the window, kicking off an officer’s face as he did, sliding out and into the parking lot.

The team he’d brought had already begun helping each other over the fence of the Police Station, the entrance too close to the mouth of the beast to even hope of doing it the easy way. The man who’d assisted him was already crouching, hands cupped, which Riley used as a springboard to get up to the top of the fence before sliding over and holding a hand out for him.

The Faceless jumped to try and grab the hand, which he did with bare victory. Using a sort of dolley system, Riley pulled himself over the fence still holding the hand of that man, leveraging him upwards and over.

When they were all outside of the fence, and the officers had finally burst out the front door, Riley and his group were already booking it down the street. Ichika wouldn’t need to run; she hadn’t been caught out as a Faceless, something that Riley had specifically avoided doing. It was up to the collective intelligence of the station to figure that out for themselves.

Running side by side with the rest of the team, Riley yelled commands. “Split up, hide for a day! Don’t let them catch you!”

“YES, SIR!”

The team took completely different paths to each other, all dividing down different alleyways as they were commanded, apart from one. They ducked behind a dumpster, waiting there for the sound of footsteps running.

Riley looked at the man who’d helped him through it. “You need to go.”

“Sir, are you sure you’ll be okay?” He asked.

“I’ll be fine,” Riley responded. “Since when did you worry so much about me, anyhow?”

“It’s not worry,” he replied. “It’s something much greater.”

“Come on, now.” Riley smirked back. “You’ve surely not been here long enough to know that.”

Almost like clockwork, The Faceless removed his mask and revealed his face. Riley’s smile fell low as he saw who exactly he’d been running with.

And like he’d realised it too late, he was dodging a fist from Yonaka who tried smashing him in the face with his fist. Riley slid back a little, seeing Yonaka’s crazed eyes as he threw his hair outwards.

“You tried to kill me? Seriously?” Yonaka ripped down his sleeve, revealing the symbol of a traitor- a red armband, signifying he was part of the very force opposing him. “You told them to break my fucking LEGS! All because I’m teaching the pissant Tomi a bit of fucking morality!”

Riley felt his eye twitch. “Who the hell let you onto the team?”

“The man I snapped the neck of in the station, that’s who.” Yonaka stamped his mask below his foot. “I made a promise to you that I’d keep everything secret! I made a promise that I’d stay silent! Well SURPRISE! THAT PROMISE STOPPED WHEN YOU TRIED TO KILL ME!”

“To be fair, I didn’t tell them to kill you.”

“Well guess what, asshole?!” He pulled out a gun. “Now I’m killing YOU!”

Riley put his hands up in defence when the barrel pointed his direction. “H-Hey--”

“Say your final words!” Yonaka’s hand was firm. Unwavering. He was serious about what he was about to do. “Say them so that everyone can hear you!”

Riley felt his smile begin to rise slightly. “... Sure.”

He cleared his throat. As he did, the dumpster’s lid opened, the sound of the plastic topping alerting Yonaka that he’d made a huge mistake.

“NOW!”

Out of the Dumpster sprung two more Faceless, the sound of them flying out confusing Yonaka as he was slammed into the ground by them. They held him there, struggling and snarling, as Riley walked over, kicking the gun that had fallen to the wayside further down the alleyway.

Riley crouched down to meet him halfway. “I honestly question if you think I’m that stupid.”

Yonaka roared back. “What the FUCK?!”

“Do you really think I don’t make back up plans?” Riley continued. “I knew that something was going to go wrong. Granted, I didn’t know it’d be YOU, but I knew that it’d be something like you. That’s why I planned my route out in advance- put two teams of Faceless on it to take care of anything I found suspicious.”

The Faceless in question nodded to each other as Yonaka looked at Riley standing. To his surprise, Riley walked over to the gun, picking up the device from the floor and walking back over to where he was forced onto the ground.

“It’s a little unorthodox, but it’s a righteous cause.” He looked to the pair holding him in place. “Either of you two want to do the honours?”

Yonaka caught on instantly. “W-Wait! Wait! I--”

“Nope.” Riley spun the gun to point down at him. “You said it yourself- you’re not staying silent anymore. And that makes you a detriment to our plan.”

“I-I’ve not said anything!” He argued.

“Then this is a precaution.”

“Riley, don’t you even fucking think about it,” Yonaka squirmed, barely even moving against the strength of his captors. “What will the news say, huh? When they find the body of one of your precious Faceless dead, what are they going to report?!”

Riley looked at the shards of the broken mask on the floor, instantly guessing the headline. “Local Bully Shot Dead by Possible Assassin.”

“Y-You won’t kill me!” The shakiness of Yonaka’s voice was audible. “You won’t! You don’t kill people! You don’t want me on your guilty conscience, do you?!”

Riley thought about it for all of two seconds. “You’re correct. I don’t kill people.”

Yonaka sighed with relief, but only for a second, when the gun was pointed back at his head one more time.

“It’s only murder when it’s human.” Riley’s grin went chaotic. “And quite frankly? I’m putting down a sick dog.”

Yonaka surged with a last ditch effort. “NO--”

“This is humane.”

The gunshot rang out with all but the sound of running footsteps.

**…**

Riley arrived back at his apartment some time later. The moon was high in the sky- it was midnight, and he was exhausted from running. The police knew of this apartment, that much was true. Riley wasn’t going to be able to stay in it for long.

Not that he wanted to. All he was planning to do was sleep and get out.

He lay in his bed, wondering about what was going to happen tomorrow. He needed to collect a delivery from a man he was on bad terms with, followed by meeting with a man he knew next to nothing about. Then, following that, he’d meet with Toshio, hang out, and then… What?

Onto the next day?

The raid was on Saturday. It was going to be a hard swerve that was going to finally define what he has been planning for this entire time.

Of course… he had to get tomorrow first.


	10. CHAPTER 2- BLOODSHED FORGOTTEN TO TIME

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get fed up with one, I spend the night with the other.'
> 
> \- Anton Chekhov

##  CHAPTER 2.3- GOING DOWNHILL

Even through the blood loss, he could see the disappointment in the crowd.

Riley had both hands tied behind his back, the little trickle of blood from his mouth adding promise that he’d been beaten. The whirling blades of the helicopters were like the buzzing of mosquitoes, and every officer and guard that had been brought to the opening of Tanaka Hospital had a gun larger than their forearm.

Riley, meanwhile, barely had his mask. Seems he was finally being made a fool of.

“People of Yokohama!” Suddenly, the shrill, evil voice of a familiar figure filled the world around him. “Welcome to the opening of Tanaka Hospital. It has been a long road, but we have such a wonderful opening ceremony for you today.”

Riley looked up as he was shoved forwards and onto the floor. He saw the crowd of people behind him- Kabutos, Morrison, and a third person who he didn’t quite recognise. He’d heard stories of them, however.

“The Pest of Japan… Riley Tanaka…” The woman behind him laughed. “No relation to me, of course. No relation to the hospital, either.”

Riley shivered. Disowned by his own mother… How wonderful.

“Akari…” He spoke the name, looking out into the crowd. Dark shadows of everyone looked back at him, many of which were Faceless, including Lily, Tomi and Ichika. They looked at him with hatred, fear, anger… some of them, all of the above.

It hadn’t been betrayal. Betrayal would’ve been too easy.

It was incompetence that had gotten him caught.

“Since the capture of Riley Tanaka, the Faceless have disbanded,” Akari walked out from around Riley, standing in front of him. Riley was forced to look at her shoes. “A rebellious community, held down by a single leader, gone in the wind.”

She laughed, and a few of the crowd laughed, too.

“Of course, we must thank the wonderful Morrison Valesquez for this. He was the very man to capture Riley and bring him into my… comfort.” Akari looked at Morrison, who nodded and bowed. “And to think, Riley attempted to make him a Faceless Sympathiser. How low must one person go?”

Riley snickered at how hard Akari was trying.

“And even now, at the end of his rope, he attempts to defy me… How sickening.” Akari motioned to make Riley stand, which two guards did for him. “If I was more forgiving, I’d given you final words. No, not now.”

Akari looked him in the eye, and Riley saw how chaotic she’d become. She’d been wanting to do this for so long. She’d been wanting to remove the thorn in her side.

And now she was going to do it, in front of everyone. Talk about a boost in ego.

With a swift hand, she was handed an engraved pistol. She stepped behind Riley, making sure Riley knew what was going on by pushing the barrel against his head before stepping back slightly.

  


“May your blood turn to Fool’s Gold on these steps, and ours shine like rubies in the wake of your death!”

Riley sighed. “You've been practising that line? Seems like a waste of--”

The gun fired.

Then again.

Then again…

Until Riley was awake.

To be honest, he’d probably been awake about halfway into the nightmare, but he didn’t particularly care. The gunshots were coming steadily as someone battered a fist on his apartment door, alerting him that the knocking wasn’t friendly.

“Who is it…?” He rubbed his eye, and then regretted rubbing his eye. “It’s like six in the morning…”

“Yokohama Police Department!” The voice that echoed from the other side of the door woke Riley up more than the knocking. “We know you’re in there, Riley! We have the building surrounded!”

“Eesh, have you ever heard of a shave-and-a-haircut knock?” Riley put his mask on, then put his hoodie on over it. “Give me like half a second, I need to brush my teeth.”

“You have until the count of 3!”

“3 seconds or 3 minutes?”

Riley definitely heard the sound of a hateful sigh, and realised that it was Kabutos. He grinned widely, already backpedalling towards the window which he opened and put one foot through.

“1!” Kabutos barked. “2!”

“Alright, alright, you don’t have to shout!” Riley snickered, getting out. “Door’s unlocked! Just come in!”

And then, Riley was ramping down the fire escape. Riley loved this trick- Police can’t enter your home without a warrant or without consent, at least in Japan, so he willingly kept his door unlocked just to give them some idea that he was going to come quietly.

Riley has never gone quietly.

As he made it to the lowest he could go, kicking the ladder down, he heard Kabutos on the radio. “THE FUCKER’S HIGHTAILED! SHOOT TO KILL!”

Riley paused on the rungs.

That was new.

Sliding down, he saw two officers spot him, already drawing their firearms. Riley’s smile widened as he ducked behind the dumpster, bullets ricocheting off of it. Sure enough, they were trying to kill him, but swifter than they would’ve done usually.

Riley shoved the dumpster backwards as he heard the boots coming towards him, ducking hard as he sprinted to the other end of the alley and out the other end, rushing the manhole that he knew was already in a position for him to dive down.

As he ran for it, however, he saw that a police blockade up the road absolutely could see him and were already getting ready to run him down with bullets. He instead continued forwards into the next alley, springing off the dumpster lid and up onto the fire escape of the apartment block across from him.

He absolutely felt a bullet whizz past his boot as he barely clambered up onto it. With no other option, Riley began sprinting up the stairs, getting Deja Vu from how many times he’d done it before. Course, last time he did it he was being chased up by Kabutos, and considering he was probably still in Riley’s apartment it would be easy to evade him.

As he was about to reach the roof, Riley realised he could hear a helicopter. He almost fell down the Staircase again seeing it, the red-dot sight of a sniper scraping the area he just was. They’d really gone all out, it seemed.

Riley tested the window of the apartment he’d fallen down to, and found it was unlocked. He slipped through into it, hoping to God whoever was in it wasn’t afraid of Red-Masked Hooligans.

Course, everything in this world will never be that easy, and Riley was met with the shrill shriek of a woman and a man grabbing the lamp from his nightstand as a weapon.

“Who are you?!”

Riley laughed. “Correct! Fix your grammar.”

He immediately barrelled to the front door, undoing the latch and getting out before he could be clobbered. Riley flexed, realising it was going to a day of running, which started with storming down the staircase, hoping to get through the front door of the apartment block before the officers who were searching for him.

Riley sprinted down the winding staircase, his footsteps beating to the same rhythm of chattering teeth. As he spun off the third floor’s banister, he heard the storming footsteps of about fifteen different people coming towards him and reversed his motion to run backwards up the stairs again, using the back wall as momentum to sprint the full way down the corridor of the fourth floor apartment.

Riley sprinted past the first three doors, sliding to the fourth and immediately forcing his way into the unlocked door. As he closed it quietly behind him, he made sure to throw the bolt, and before long he was curled into a ball in the bathtub. He pulled the shower rug over him, making sure it was snugly tucked to look like it was barely moved.

Riley lay there in complete darkness, his body pushed into the cold porcelain of the bathtub as he steadied his breathing. The world around him seemed to move slower as the officers went door to door, trying to find him. People gave alibis either side of the room he’d found himself in, and when they tested his door and found it locked, they were moving on.

Riley laid there another hour before he even shifted a muscle. He’d had a habit of being a statue- the less you moved, the less you needed to worry about getting caught in a dark room.

The second the hour ticked over, Riley pushed the bathmat over to see that nobody was around. That was good enough for him as he slipped out of the bathtub and onto the floor, rolling his shoulders, feeling stiff.

He had to hide.

**…**

A line of drool ran down Shinohara’s face as she stared at her laptop, mouth open wide. 

“Shino.”

She quickly threw a blanket over her legs, wiping the saliva from her mouth and taking a more formal, if not flushed approach.

Riley was standing there, arms crossed, looking down at her.

Shinohara looked up. “Riley! H-Hey… You’re here early.”

“Yeah, had a busy morning-- what were you just doing?” Riley took off his mask, putting it into his hoodie pocket.

“Oh, um… just… writing.” Shinohara adjusted the headphones in her ears. “Listening to music. You know.”

Riley didn’t waste time before pulling the headphone out of the jack. Immediately, a moaning filled the area, one that played until Shinohara closed the lid of her laptop.

“... What do you have to gain from lying about that?” Riley raised an eyebrow. “For a girl who hates being recognised for her job, Shino, you’re definitely ingrained in it.”

Shinohara made a nervous giggle, rubbing her arm.

“Anyway, that’s not why I’m here.” Riley walked around, walking through the door that entered the reception booth. “I’m here because I need you to hide me for a bit.”

“Hide you?” Shinohara did immediately flinch at that, standing and pulling her jeans up. “What for?”

“The police seem to be getting aggressive,” Riley mentioned. “They shot at me today. It’s the first time that’s happened since last time.”

Shinohara bit the nail of her ring finger. “I-I see… well, I think I can do that. My boss is out today for a meeting, so I’ve been tasked with making sure the staff stay busy.”

“The staff being your fingers, I assume?”

“Please stop referring to that.”

Riley snickered. He looked around the reception booth. “Ah… I have a meeting myself that I’m supposed to make. I can’t postpone it, they’re only here for today… Is there any chance I could have them roll around here?”

“Here…?” Shinohara looked at him nervously. “I-Is it dangerous?”

“Oh, extremely. But the truck’s unmarked and is under a provisional license, so the retirement home won’t face anything.” He smirked at her, immediately seeing her melt at it. “I’ll just need to use your phone. I promise, the truck will be out of there in an hour.”

Shinohara, blinded by either love or lust, nodded gently. Riley turned, grabbing the landline from its hook and dialing the twelve digit number before putting the receiver to his ear.

One ring… two rings…

“AYO!” Riley barely avoided having his ear blown out. “What’s up?! Who is this?”

“It’s Riley,” He mentioned.

“Riley!” The other voice regarded him like an old friend- which, to be honest, he could probably be considered as one. “What’s up, my man?”

“A lot of things.” Riley didn’t hold the same tone. “I need to move the delivery place. The apartment block is swarming with officers; they’ve set up roadblocks, toll points, everything.”

“Oh, no, yeah, that’s cool!” The guy said. “So where exactly do you want it dropped off, then?”

Riley looked to Shinohara with a quick look of confirmation, who did the ‘it’s okay’ hand motion. “Yokohama Retirement Home.”

“Retirement Home?!” The guy was shocked. “Dude, there’s gonna be old people there.”

“And? Old people aren’t cops.”

The guy laughed. “You know what, yeah! That’s true. Alright, I’ll try and find an area to swing by.”

After that, he hung up, and Riley put the phone back on the receiver. Shinohara anxiously walked over, a warm smile trickling on her face. “So… we’re going to be spending the day together?”

“Indeed we are,” Riley mentioned.

“Well…” Shinohara ran a finger down his chest, instantly going flirtatious. “I’ve been thinking of something we could try together, if you want to mess around a little.”

Riley, who showed no sign of wanting it, just grabbed her finger and moved it off his chest. “Shino, please.”

“Oh, come  _ on _ !” Shinohara watched as he walked past her to the shutter of the reception. “Riley, we both know we love each other! I can’t wait much longer!”

Riley spun back, his smile widening. “And you won’t have to. Like I said, Sunday’s the day.”

“But Sunday’s so far away…” Shinohara bit her lip. “And you’re right here. This is the best damn opportunity we’re ever going to get…”

Riley’s smile didn’t seem so happy anymore. Shinohara recognised that, and she caved, just crossing her arms and looking away with a pout.

Riley then laughed. “Ah… there’s your older sister rubbing off on you.”

“Huh?” Shinohara looked back, blush erupting. “What do you--”

The door opened, and Riley immediately ducked under the desk. Shinohara didn’t move for a second, but walked over when she saw that someone was waiting there.

“Hello, sir. How may I help you?” Instantly, Shinohara’s entire tone changed, and she was professional once more. “Are you here to visit?”

“You can say that.”

Riley’s face dropped to the lowest it could go.

Shinohara sat down, legs tucking under the desk either side of Riley. Whether she’d done it on purpose or on accident didn’t matter as she began a conversation with Morrison, the man who’d entered the home, and Riley was forced to sit on his knees at Crotch-Level with the woman who was trying desperately to be his girlfriend.

Make no mistake- Riley wasn’t going to try anything. Why on Earth would he risk it?

Morrison continued. “We’ve gotten word that a dangerous criminal is in the area. Tell me, miss… Shinohara, are you aware of a man named Riley Tanaka?”

Riley knew that Shinohara’s name was on a little plate, which was for people to know her personally. Which means now she was in danger.

“Yes, I’m aware of the name.” Shinohara, who shifted uncomfortably to cross her legs, managed to grapple Riley’s face in the cross, which he had to gently slip out of on his own will. “He’s the leader of the Faceless, right? I would… assume he’s close by if you’re here…?”

Riley then realised what she’d tried to do.

Shinohara was so desperately afraid of Morrison in that moment that she had tried to grab Riley’s head for him to give her advice on how to speak to Morrison. Of course, if Riley had done that, he’d be caught almost immediately, so he had to come up with a different plan.

“Well, if you don’t mind me asking- are you aware that Riley Tanaka has lived locally in Yokohama for an extended period of time?”

Riley grabbed Shinohara’s leg, causing her to jump with surprise at the force. She gasped slightly, too, which is exactly what Riley needed to hear.

“You weren’t?” Morrison assumed.

“No, no I wasn’t!” Shinohara, in an amazing turn of events, caught onto what Riley had done. “H-How close to the Retirement Home…?”

Morrison hummed. “About… half an hour. He lives in the apartment block residence- you know the one?”

Riley tapped her leg twice. Depending on what she said next, that’s the way he’d go with it.

“I’m… sure I’ve heard of it, somewhere…” Two taps for Yes it was, then. “But if that’s the case, why are you here? Is the Retirement Home in danger?”

“We suspect that Riley Tanaka has been visiting this place for quite some time.” Morrison sounded like he took out a notebook. “If you wouldn’t mind, would you be willing to answer a few questions?”

Riley didn’t need to guide that question’s answer. “Of course, sir.”

“Thanks.” Morrison began. “Can I just have your full name for questioning?”

“Oh, of course. It’s Shinohara Mori.”

“Shinohara… Mori…” Morrison tutted. “I feel like I recognise that name.”

“Oh?” Riley almost did the same face that Shinohara was definitely doing- one of smug dejection. “Where from, sir?”

“I think my son follows you on social media…?”

“Ah, Shinohara-Lights-Out?” She chuckled.

“Lights… wha?”

“Oh, sweetie… I’m a Porn Actress.” She laughed, and Riley would’ve paid ANYTHING to see the face Morrison just made. “I’m working here to try and get an identity out of it for a bit.”

“A-Ah… I s-see…” Morrison stammered through an apology. “Okay, let’s… let’s just ask the questions. Shinohara, answer every one as truthfully as you can.”

“Okay.”

“Question one… are you a Faceless Sympathiser?”

Riley squeezed her leg twice. That one earned him a boot to the jaw, courtesy of her uncrossing her legs.

“I am, yes.” Shinohara adjusted her sitting position. “I would… never join them, though. Too much to live for.”

“Well, considering you were so surprised to know where Riley lived, I have no reason to doubt that.” Jackpot. “Since you answered that, next question… do you know anyone who is part of the Faceless, or is thinking of joining them?”

Shinohara sighed. “No, sir. I’m around the elderly 14 hours a day and getting railed in the night.”

Morrison scribbled. “Okay… I’ll just edit that a little. Next question.”

Shinohara then replied with a single word. “Stop.”

“Stop?”

“Sir… with all due respect, you’re wasting your time. I’m a receptionist with a history in entertainment.” She barely missed Riley’s face as her legs crossed again, but in the opposite order. “The only experience I’d have with Riley and The Faceless would be if I accidentally had sex with one.”

“I understand what you’re trying to imply, Shinohara, but this is an honest test. We have to do it.”

“Well, you want me to tell you why?” Shinohara leant in. “Let me tell you why, sir. I’m not a good person; far from it. I have sex with people for money- Only difference between my job and prostitution is that people pay for it. But I’m not about to run across the fields of Yokohama screaming revolution because I disagree with the words of the government.”

Riley listened with curiosity.

“I… have someone.” She sounded almost scared to talk. “I found someone who cares for me, just as much as I care for them. Someone funny, smart, entertaining… Not the most handsome, but I never cared about that. Endearing, loving. A little forceful, which everyone needs to be, especially in the bedroom.”

Riley absolutely saw Shinohara bite her lip at the idea.

“But above all, he respects me, and who I am. He knows my job means I do things that others would find disgusting. He knows that I’m into a LOT of stuff that the average girl isn’t. Even through it all, even at his  _ worst _ , he treats me like I’m the best.”

Riley knew that Shinohara was talking about him. It was… strange. Why did she care so much? He’d told her that if she kept thinking like that, she’d only mourn him when he died.

“Alright…” Morrison sighed. “Well… If that’s that, I guess I need to tell you this. We’re aware that here is where Toshio Tanaka is being held. Is that correct?”

Riley froze.

“Yes, that’s right…” Shinohara shifted uncomfortably. “Why is that?”

“Well, under the act of the Medical Department of the High Court, Toshio Tanaka is being moved into the newly built Tanaka Hospital.” Morrison drummed his pen on his notepad. “Before it’s opened on Saturday, Akari wants to see if we can show the medical prowess of the new hospital by curing the disease that Toshio has.”

Riley put a hand over his mouth to literally restrict a growl that came out of his mouth.

“O-Oh… I see…” Shinohara didn’t deserve to be the victim in this conversation. “W-Well, um… I can’t move any members of the Retirement Home without my boss’ permission, and he’s out on a meeting.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Morrison quipped. “Akari’s authority is higher in this area of Yokohama. We can make due.”

“... Right.” Shinohara looked down glumly, catching the glance of Riley as she did. “Well, sir, please go through… I’ll bring a wheelchair.”

“That won’t be necessary. Don’t be ridiculous.”

And through he went. The second he was gone, Shinohara’s face turned to a glare, looking at Riley as she slid backwards. Riley got out from under the desk, his smile never seeming so unwilling.

“... So that went well.”

SLAP.

Riley’s face lit up in utter agony as Shinohara hit him with a strength that could’ve rung a church bell.

“Don’t EVER grab me like that again unless you’re about to follow through, you dick.” Shinohara crossed her arms, pouting, looking away as Riley spat blood onto the floor. “... S-Sorry.”

“You know what? Deserved.” Riley snickered. “... Course, this is no laughing matter.”

“Riley, I’m so sorry…” Shinohara shuddered.

“Don’t be.” Riley rolled his shoulders. “You have a good swinging arm.”

“N-No, about… Toshio.”

His smile lowered. “Ah. That. Shino, I know this goes without saying, but I need you to prevent that.”

“B-But…” She looked at her own hands, seeing they were shaking. “Riley, I can’t do that. I can’t risk this.”

Riley groaned. “Right. Then we need to form a plan… And I think I’ve got just the idea.”

Shinohara looked at him, her brow furrowing, before her eyes widened with a blush.

Sure enough… She was ready to do whatever it took.


	11. CHAPTER 2- BLOODSHED FORGOTTEN TO TIME

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'As a surgeon you have to have a controlled arrogance. If it's uncontrolled, you kill people, but you have to be pretty arrogant to saw through a person's chest, take out their heart and believe you can fix it. Then, when you succeed and the patient survives, you pray, because it's only by the grace of God that you get there.'
> 
> \- Mehmet Oz

##  CHAPTER 2.4- HOSTILE NEGOTIATIONS

Shinohara opened the door, walking in with the wheelchair. “Alright… Sorry about the wait, sir…”

“It’s quite alright,” Morrison told her. “We’re not on a deadline, here.”

Shinohara folded the wheelchair outwards. “Alright…”

Morrison gave Shinohara a look of confusion, shrugged, then walked over to Toshio, looking him over. “Hello there, Toshio. We’re taking you to meet your daughter.”

Shinohara took a step back twice, letting them have their moment, which gave Riley the chance to walk in from behind her and tap her knee to make her go down to one knee and put her in a headlock.

“Morrison!”

Morrison looked past the chair, confused. “What the…?”

Shinohara tried her best. “W-Who--”

“Riley Tanaka…” Morrison stood up, adjusting his glasses. “How did I know you’d show up?”

Riley’s smile was toxic. “I caught wind of your plan. Now, let’s skip right to the last bit- let my grandfather go before I kick your ass back to Russia.”

Morrison huffed. “I’m Columbian, you countrist little troglodyte.”

Riley actually paused at that. “Wait, really? Huh. I always assumed you were from the Motherland from your attitude of ‘share it with everyone’ against me.”

Morrison shook his head, his dreadlocks bouncing with him. “What do you want, Riley?”

“I told you. I want you to leave Toshio Tanaka alone.” Riley smirked gently. “You’re going to listen to me, or I’m going to put you in the ground.”

Shinohara had had a blush the entire time she was in the headlock. “Y-You could squeeze a little harder--”

“No can do, Riley.” Morrison was already wading through his notepad. Riley saw about 80% of the notes were large words of confusion. “Toshio Tanaka has to come with us. We’re taking them to Tanaka Hospital to receive treatment.”

“Treatment for the medical castration of the mind you gave him?!” Riley yelled slightly. “You think Akari’s gonna benefit from this shit?!”

Morrison flinched. So did Riley, as he realised he swore.

“... So the rumours were true.” Morrison smiled slightly. “Akari Tanaka’s your mother. How fitting.”

“... Fitting?” Riley raised an eyebrow, which was hidden by his mask.

“Well, it is, isn’t it?” Morrison sighed, putting his notepad back. “The abused and neglected son, taking revenge on his mother for his tortured youth. I don’t pity you, but I respect your troubles, Riley. I don’t want to do this… and… well, you don’t want me to, either.”

Riley tilted his head. “So what are you trying to get at, here?”

“... I’ll leave him be.” Morrison’s stance shifted to a passive one. “But you need to let this fine lady go, too. She doesn’t deserve to be taken hostage by you.”

Shinohara almost resisted a giggle.

Riley’s smile was genuine, for the smallest of moments. “Ah, Morrison. You really do know how to be just the WORST liar, huh?”

Morrison’s smile fell slightly. “... Had a feeling you’d not believe me. What, you think I’m gonna shoot you?”

“By the actions of Kabutos, yes.”

Morrison groaned. “Great. Like we needed more heat in the office. Alright, if you distrust me that much.”

Morrison grabbed the pistol off his belt, tossing it on the floor. Riley laughed, and then went stern, and Morrison also laughed and tossed his second gun onto the floor.

“Awesome.” Riley let Shinohara go, who adjusted her hair and giggled at him. “Well, that means you’ll be going, right?”

Morrison nodded. “Yes.”

…

Shinohara was grabbed again. This time by Morrison, who revealed his third gun, hidden up his sleeve, holding it against Shinohara’s head. “Listen here, Riley. I’m not leaving without Toshio.”

“R-Riley?” Shinohara stammered.

Riley… couldn’t stop himself. “Let her go! Do not even ATTEMPT to hurt her!”

Morrison’s smile creeped onto his face. “And there it is… the proof I needed to figure out. You’ve done me a good honour here, Riley. I know now that you have feelings for this girl.”

Riley shook, his smile looking more like a snarl for once.

“R-Riley, I…” Shinohara struggled, but Morrison had a good grip on her. “D-Don’t… Don’t let Toshio go.”

“... Shino?”

“Listen…” Shinohara looked up at Morrison. “I… I know that you care about me, but you care about Toshio more. Don’t let Akari do… w-whatever it is that she’s going to do.”

Morrison bit his lip. “Riley… don’t do something you’re going to regret here.”

Riley looked at the pair.

With a slow, methodical movement… Riley did something Morrison was used to seeing. He took off his mask, revealing the scars of his face below it. The smile always seemed so frightening without the mask to protect the battlefield below it. Morrison even looked away.

“... You really want to do this, Morrison?”

“... Riley--”

“Because I have a gun too, bitch!”

Riley pulled out the gun from his hoodie pocket. Morrison responded by pointing his gun at Riley, causing Shinohara to scream and close her eyes tightly.

“So now we both have guns!” Riley yelled at him. “And they’re both loaded, I assume? Hm?”

Morrison nodded. “Mine is.”

“And so is mine. So both of our lives are on the line.” Riley was still moving pretty actively, pacing and moving his head. “And I can assure you, Morrison, I know this room like the back of my hand. I know exactly where I’ll need to duck to stop you from hitting me.”

Morrison kept a steady hand. “I’ll hit you once.”

“So will I. And I’ll still be breathing.”

Morrison took a deep breath. “Riley, this is ludicrous. Your little rebel group won’t win against Akari. Let’s not waste valuable steel on each other…”

“Actually, my bullets are made of lead.” Riley stuck his tongue out, and then went serious again. “Let. Shino. Go.”

Shinohara shook and twitched, trying desperately to remain calm. Morrison looked down at her, weighing his options.

“... Alright.” Morrison, with a heavy heart, took his arm out from around Shinohara, who stumbled forwards and rushed to Riley’s side. “... To be honest? This gun’s not loaded.”

He tossed it aside.

“... But his is.”

Riley spun around, just in time to see a silhouette spin into the doorframe, raising the muzzle of a gun towards him.

“RILEY!”

… The gunshot pierced the room. Riley collapsed to the floor, hitting hard, taking a hard breath from the wind he lost. He sat up, panickedly patting himself over, only to see that he was unharmed.

Shinohara stood there, her eyes wide, her hands out to show she’d pushed Riley aside. One of her fingers was bleeding.

… But Morrison was way worse.

He looked down, seeing the gunshot had hit him square in the body. The blood flowed from the hole, seeping out like ooze, and with a hard breath he collapsed, hitting the ground hard. Riley scrambled to his feet, grabbing one of the guns off the floor, but the guy was already hightailing it.

“Shino, you alright?” He looked over, seeing she nodded nervously. “Alright. Here’s bandages- make sure both of you aren’t going to bleed out by the end of this.”

He tossed her a roll of bandages, running out to see where the figure went. The tailend of a trenchcoat escaped round the corner of the reception, leading Riley to sprint after them and sliding before pulling the trigger.

_ Click. _

Riley looked at the gun. Sure enough, the one he’d grabbed was one of Morrison’s, and it was completely unloaded.

He snickered. That was fine.

His gun was unloaded also.

Riley was definitely faster than the man, which helped as he barrelled out of the doorway to the Retirement Home, seeing the figure running the other way. Riley only needed to see the fact they had a hood up to immediately assume who it was- After all, Kabutos would definitely willingly show his face.

Riley laughed hysterically, and then roared. “AKARI!”

He sprinted after them. In his mind, he was running the calculations, knowing he’d probably slam into them with speed in about ten seconds. The figure was trying to get away desperately, and Riley was way too quick.

Brace for impact! Three… Two… One…

Riley skidded to a halt as he realised the street he was about to run towards was a police barricade. If Kabutos’ advice to the fellow officers was still in place, he wasn’t ready to be riddled by bullets.

The figure knew this as he got to the other side of the street. He turned, pulling back his hood… and his mask downwards.

“... You.”

Standing there, with a glint of silver in his eye, was a man that was well known. Akari’s ‘disciple’. The one who’d take over after her when she passed on.

Standing across the street from Riley was Kenjiro Yoshimitsu.

Kenjiro sniffed. “Hello, Riley.”

“Hey, Kenny boy!” Riley waved violently. “What brings you to the neighbourhood?!”

Kenjiro’s eyes flashed. “Business.”

“Business, of course. Just like my mother, right?” Riley rolled his shoulders. “That’s why you attempted to murder me.”

“That’s business in High Court. The entire foundation has it out for you.” Kenjiro looked at the gun in his hand, the immediate look being he was going to use it again. “You’ve got a hefty bounty on your head. First person to put a bullet between your eyes gets a 55% grant to their section.”

Riley rolled his wrist, jogging on the spot. “Kenny, Kenny, Kenny… you seem so lost in the delusion that Akari wants anything to do with you.”

Kenjiro didn’t seem to care. “Steady, Riley. Don’t want to exhaust yourself for the chase that’s about to happen.”

“Yes, before you fire your gun in the air…” Riley predicted it swiftly. “Tell me, exactly, what is it you had to gain by murdering me? I’m sure Akari wanted the kill to herself, didn’t she?”

“She does.” Kenjiro shook his head. “That’s why I wasn’t aiming for you.”

Riley thought about it.

“... Oh, son of a--” He snickered. “You were hoping Shino would shove me aside, huh?”

“She did.” Kenjiro’s smile was devilish. “And I hit Morrison.”

Riley laughed into the air. “Aiming for Shino, Kenny Boy?!”

“No.”

Riley flinched. “... Excuse me?”

“I was aiming for Morrison.”

Riley laughed, this time without emotion. “... For real? For what reason?”

“Simple.” Kenjiro’s gaze lowered. “By murdering Morrison, and the security cameras being off in the building, Akari can push the blame onto you and the Faceless. That gives us leverage for getting Toshio out of the building, and preventing the other sections of the High Court from governing our decisions.”

“You’re smart!” Riley told him politely. “Unfortunately, you did the one thing that every bad guy ever does.”

“And what is that?”

“You monologued.” Riley turned, knowing that Kenjiro wasn’t about to use his gun. “And now, you get to watch me walk away.”

Kenjiro pointed the gun up to Riley, only for a small beeping sound to echo the pavement in front of him. He looked down, seeing that a red dot was shining there, and with a twist of his head to see where it was coming from, he was clotheslined into the window of the building he’d stood in front of by a motorcycle.

The alarms of the building went off, and as Riley laughed into the air, he heard the familiar trotting of Lily’s shoes. “Done, boss!”

“Ah, there’s Lily with a conveniently timed Motorcycle.” He put his hands in his pockets, not even bothering to look the other direction as the police scrambled to Kenjiro’s assistance. “How’s things coming along?”

“I should ask you the same!” Lily berated him. “You didn’t even leave a pager message! The Faceless has been anarchy trying to contact you!”

“Yeah, well, got into a little bit of a scrap outside of the apartment blocks.” Riley huffed, checking the absent pager to see there were about 20 messages on it. “Kabutos has been using military ammunition on me the entire morning-- what time is it?”

“It’s 3 in the morning, sir.”

“Ah, so around 5 hours.” He groaned. “Well, we need to get back to the Retirement Home.”

Riley said that like it wasn’t about three feet in front of them. They turned off into the Retirement Home, seeing that the staff of the building were tending to clearly shaken patients. Riley nudged Lily’s arm, to which she saluted and walked over to assist, and Riley headed towards Toshio’s Room to see what was going on.

Shinohara had done as she was told- she’d bandaged and gauzed Morrison’s chest, stopping the bleeding, and had even removed the bullet, of which she placed into Riley’s palm. Immediately after she did so, she threw her arms around Riley’s neck, hugging him deeply. Riley, with no other way to show affection, did the same.

“You know how to worry me, you know that?” Shinohara said into his shoulder.

“Yeah, I’m good like that.” Riley laughed. After the hug finished, he walked over and clinging onto Toshio, seeing that he’d not even been shifted from his position the entire time. “Hey, old man. You get shot?”

Shinohara took a panicked breath. “R-Riley… you know the police are going to be arriving here soon…”

Riley nodded. “Yep! That’s why I’m gonna need to be taking my leave.”

Shinohara blinked. “... I… hate to see you go, Riley.”

“I know, Shino.” He took her hand, turning her towards him. “... Four more days, alright? Just wait until Sunday.”

Shinohara smiled, gulping as her blush returned. “... Don’t die.”

“Not planning to.”

And then, with a surge of emotion, Riley kissed Shinohara. He knew it was a bad idea- he’d argued why they shouldn’t for so long, after all- but after four years of knowing each other and not a single moment of relenting, it was about time he showed Shinohara he actually cared.

Shinohara pulled away after it, laughing with a melting voice. “H-Hah… you bastard…”

Riley shrugged, grabbing his mask from the floor, slotting it firmly over his eyes. “See ya, Shino. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“W-Wait!” Shinohara stopped him suddenly. “Didn’t… didn’t that package have to arrive here? How do I explain that?”

“Oh, yeah, that!” He gave her a two finger wave. “It’s not.”

“What do you--” Riley left before she could say it. “Riley!”

Riley walked out into the lobby outside the reception, pointing at the staff member who noticed him.

“If you speak a word of this to the police…”

… Riley didn’t finish that sentence.

He left with Lily out into the sunlight once more, her face shining as they looked either side of the street. “So, boss! Where are we going?”

“We’re going to pick up our delivery.” Riley stomped the manhole, twirling it vertical. “Had to move it.”

“Oh, area 6?”

“Nah, area 2. Felt it was too far from area 13 to be suspicious.”

“Then why didn’t you move it to area 9? That’s the furthest place away.”

“Eh, it was like the area 8 debacle. They predicted it too easily.”

Riley helped Lily down into the sewers and, just in time, slipped his way below deck, before putting the manhole in place.

**…**

On the other side of Yokohama, Riley trudged out to the parking lot of the abandoned gas station. Lily was by his side, singing a Russian tune that she learnt when she was young.

Riley rolled his shoulders. “How  _ is  _ Amy, Lily?”

“Mom is fine,” Lily looked back, stopping her singing. “She doesn’t like you, still, but she’s coming around.”

“Tell her she’s fine not to like me…”

“So, when is the truck getting here?” Lily looked around, swaying with a cutesy bob. “Are we early?”

Riley looked around, seeing that there was no vehicle in sight. “Must be. The guy delivering it had to take a different route because of all the police barricades.”

“So it’s still fair game, right?” Lily looked at the overhang of the gas station. “You want me on lookout?”

“Read my mind.” Riley walked over, giving Lily a foothold to jump up and climb onto the top. “Just tell me if anything comes from the road.”

Meanwhile, Riley walked into the gas station, checking how ruined it actually was. It was empty, of course, with cracks in the walls and graffiti covering close to every surface.

And inside, he saw something else. Sure, the shelving units were open to let dust take their residence, but behind the counter was a different story. Directly underneath the cash register, long since wedged open and drained of its notes, a large duffel bag of unknown origins lay under it.

Riley’s grin did not widen.

It wasn’t that the truck hadn’t arrived yet.

It was that it was already here.

Riley immediately ducked under the counter, hearing the sound of distant sirens. He grabbed his pager, typing very quickly to Lily to tell her about what was going on, only to receive a response he hoped to God he wouldn’t.

‘They’re already surrounding the building.’

Riley put his head on the backboard of the counter, feeling a wave of anger flood him. Of all the times that he’d wanted to at least distract himself from the possibility of a police ambush, and here he was sitting in the middle of one.

He had to work quickly.

Grabbing the duffel bag, checking inside, seeing that exactly what he’d hoped was inside. That was step one- step two was getting out of the building without being arrested.

Lily was fine. She had her orders- if this was ever a possibility, she was to take her mask and hurl it as far as possible in the opposite direction, and act as a ‘rebellious youth’, so to speak. She mixed right in, especially in a place like this- act frightened, and she’d get away scott free.

Lily had gone her entire time in the Faceless unrecognised.

Riley was not so lucky.

His eyes scanned the area, heart beating in tune with the pulling up cars. In a split second, he realised the back door was open, but he’d never clear the field without being spotted. Looking down from the door led to the carpeted flooring behind the gas station’s counter, and in his panic he saw the carpet was a little movable.

Riley threw that carpet aloft, and realised underneath was a trapdoor.

And for all it was worth, it was unlocked.

Jackpot.

Riley threw the hatch up, just as he heard the voice.

“Riley Tanaka! We have you surrounded!” Of course it was Kabutos. Who else would it be? “Come out with your hands on your head!”

Riley didn’t talk. For the first time, Kabutos was going to go without a witty response. Riley slipped down into the trapdoor, dragging the duffel bag with him, and closed it behind him. Of course, when he was met with an underground storeroom, he knew there was no way he’d be leaving unless it was the same way out.

_ “We won’t warn you again, Tanaka!”  _ The muffled voice of Kabutos rang out in its own harsh siren call.  _ “Come out, or we will use potentially lethal force!” _

Riley snickered. Sure, if he’d called that out in the street before he got his team to shoot at him, he’d probably not be in this mess as it was.

Where to?

Sure enough, Riley tried to hide anywhere he could, but he couldn’t even parcel an idea of which to do. His foot began tapping rapidly, his body getting a little anxious, but his smile never faded. There was always a way. He just had to find it.

…

The trapdoor opened.

Kabutos thumped down into the trapdoor’s entrance, ignoring the ladder, creating a dust plume that fell either side of him. He drew his taser, ready to use it the second he got the chance to.

Of course, he didn’t expect to use it. He was already in the mindset of knocking the fucker unconscious.

The second two guards were down behind him, both of them about six inches shorter than him, he barked his order. “Don’t let the red-faced prick escape.”

There were three aisles for storage, so naturally each guard took either side of him while he walked straightforward. The shelves were empty, but disturbed- there were handprints where Riley had probably tried to use them as leverage. He scoffed.

Pathetic.

He looked a little bit to his right, noticing a large crate. Ironically, the size of said crate was ‘person sized’, standing six foot tall. Kabutos’ face turned to a threatening smile, walking towards the crate and cracking his neck.

He took out his nightstick. Twirling it with expertise, Kabutos slammed it into the side of the box and using it as a new lever to pull the crate open, pointing his taser into the…

Empty box.

His brow furrowed. He should’ve known Riley wouldn’t bother with that. Hell, that was obvious from the fact the crate appeared to be sealable.

…

A single footstep misplaced itself.

Kabutos spun, already activating the taser, but a sharp kick to the side of his face toppled him. Kabutos was stunned as he was shoved into the crate, his back aching from the wood hitting his side, and he looked to see the devil looking back at him.

“How did you--?”

“Next time, try looking upwards.” Riley slammed the removed side of the crate into him. “You never even tried.”

Riley delivered another good kick into the crate before sprinting backwards. Kabutos shoved that side off immediately, however, trying to point the stun gun he’d been equipped with and firing, only to find it had been broken by the assault.

“Get him!” Kabutos screeched. “Don’t let him get away!”

Riley laughed at the command, already halfway up the ladder. One of the two guards tried to grab his leg, but got his brow split as he tried to. Riley was up the ladder in moments, slamming the trapdoor downwards and shoving the shelving unit over onto it.

Then, he heard the commotion outside. He slid over the shelving unit, busting out into the gas station’s back side. An officer instantly recognised him, drawing his side arm, but as he did Lily landed directly on top of him and forced him to let go.

Riley rushed a kick into that officer’s face, knocking him out. “You okay?”

“Yep!” Lily saluted playfully. “How about you?”

“Kabutos is in the basement.”

“I assumed that from the screaming.”

Riley pushed his back to the gas station, moving along it to see that the road up to it was swarming with cops. There had to be at least twenty of them, each with the same set-up; baton, assault vest, stun gun. There were four squad cars, making a makeshift barricade.

… But there were also two motorcycles.

Lily instantly gasped. “Riley…”

“I know.” Riley bumped fists with her. “We just need to get to one.”

Lily’s fascination with motorcycles stretched back further than Riley had expected, when he’d first learnt of it. When Lily had been growing up, her mother had been a mechanic- she’d worked on cars for a long time, earning cash for Lily to go to school. Of course, Lily picked up the love of vehicles herself, but always preferred the two-wheeled kind, believing there was a kick to them that she didn’t get from other things.

Faster, more compact, and while more dangerous that never bothered her. She even had a custom one back home that she’d be making street worthy. At 17, Lily had gotten her license. Riley loved that.

There was just one issue.

Lily was nowhere near a motorcycle.

“Alright, here’s the plan,” Riley whispered. “I’m going to pretend to turn myself in.”

Lily looked at him like he was crazy. “W-What?!”

“It’s the only idea I can think of.” Riley looked at his nails. “I’ll turn myself in, but try and talk the officers up. You’ll round the barricade, grab a bike, and drive off. Come grab me from the station in an hour, you hear?”

Lily took a shaky breath and nodded. “C-Can’t argue with that…”

“Okay then.” Riley nodded at her, looking over. “Let’s do this-- Hey, guys!”

He rounded out from the corner, hands behind his back. Instantly, all officers were on him, pointing their stun guns towards him.

“Woah, there.” Riley laughed at the lasers currently tracing a circle into his chest. “I didn’t realise this was a rave.”

“Get on your knees!” The officer closest to the front yelled at him. “Place both hands slowly and methodically onto your head.”

Riley rolled his eyes under his mask. “Honestly, this song and dance? We both know I’m not going to do anything.”

“You have three seconds to comply!”

Riley shrugged, sliding his boot along the area where he was going to kneel and then kneeling. He even crossed one leg over the other, because he knew the officers loved that. Then, he made full theatrics out of the ‘hands on head’ bit- lifting them up to the sky, and then slowly putting one on top of the other on the back of his head.

Under his mask, they never saw him look at Lily, who’d slipped in amongst the barricade and snagged a bike for her to ride on. The officer at the front- the possible second-in-command- walked over slowly, unbuckling a pair of handcuffs from the belt.

Something occurred to Riley in that moment.

… How loud was a motorcycle when it started up?

That was a risk he was going to have to take as he smiled deeply at the officer approaching. Funnily enough, he saw the officer flinch back slightly, his hand shaking at Riley’s smile.

“... What’s wrong?” Riley laughed. “You scared of little old me?”

The officer swallowed his pride. “Stop talking. You’re going away for a long time, asshole.”

Riley licked one of his fangs. “How many times have I heard that one…”

The officer rounded the back of Riley, putting weight onto his legs. Riley knew just the spot he’d put his knee, so it was quite an opportunity to open the legs slightly and make him fall into Riley.

“Hey, easy there.” Riley snickered. “I’m fragile.”

The officer cleared his throat, grabbing Riley’s hands and pulling them down to put them into handcuffs. The second one of the cuffs went on, however, Riley slipped his other hand out of the grip, turning with a full spin to clock the officer hard in the nose, spinning around them and yanking them up into a hostage situation.

The officer was bigger than him. But Riley was stronger.

“Alright! Here’s how this is going to work!” He looked over, surprised to see Lily was gone. “You’re gonna let me go, and I’m going to walk away. Nobody has to get hurt.”

He kicked the knee out from the officer to put him into a better stance.

“... Only one person has to get hurt.”

The stun guns were trying desperately to find a good place to put their tasers, but Riley’s body was almost entirely covered by the officer in question. He slipped the handcuffs onto the officer, using him as a leverage as Riley adjusted the duffel bag over his shoulder.

“Now--”

And then, a gun fired. The pair of the taser points sunk into Riley’s mask, letting off the sound of activation, with none of the payoff as the plastic mask didn’t relent.

“... That was smart. Now, are you going to do as you’re told?”

One of the officers got smart. “We’re at a standoff here, Riley. You can’t move, we can’t either. You’ve gone on like this long enough.”

Riley’s smile grew slightly. “I haven’t gone far enough! You’re talking all this game, but your commanding chief set the order to shoot at me with actual bullets, so who’s actually ignoring what they should be doing, here?”

The officer in question stood down as another took over. “Kabutos has led us through enough, Riley! We’re following orders, and right now our orders are to bring you in!”

“Your orders are being given by a madwoman!” Riley responded harshly.

Riley heard the distant sound of a motorcycle revving.

Good. Lily was safe.

“A madwoman who’s doing the right thing!” The officer continued. “With her power, she’s gonna bring Japan back to the way it needs to be! Technology will thrive, medical operations always succeeding! Don’t you want that?”

Riley’s anger flared a little too quickly.

And in a moment of pure stupidity, he removed his mask, revealing his face. “Does THIS look like a success to you?!”

“That’s it!”

And then… it shot. A Taser hit him right between the eyeballs, and the surging electricity caused him to pass out instantly.

… A hideous laugh was the last thing he heard.

**Author's Note:**

> Full Credit to AdriC for all artwork in this series! He's very good at it.
> 
> Also, this series will contain characters from Another Branch and Crypt's Despairful Echoes- I suggest reading those if you haven't already.
> 
> Thanks for reading!  
> \- Joseph


End file.
